Ankara: Doctors Without Borders has warned of a sharp increase in violence against Palestinians and systematic obstruction of healthcare access in the occupied West Bank.
According to Anadolu Agency, ' published on March 21, the group draws on interviews with 38 patients, medical workers, and volunteers.
It documents how military operations, settler violence, and restrictions imposed by Israeli forces have severely limited access to essential medical services, resulting in preventable deaths and a deepening humanitarian crisis. The group reported that at least 870 Palestinians were killed and more than 7,100 injured between October 2023 and January 2025.
'Palestinian patients are dying because they simply cannot reach hospitals,' said Brice de le Vingne, emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders. 'We're seeing ambulances blocked by Israeli forces at checkpoints while carrying critical patients, medical facilities surrounded and raided during active operations, and healthcare workers subjected to physical violence while trying to save lives,' he said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recorded 694 attacks on healthcare in the West Bank from October 2023 to December 2024. These include direct assaults on hospitals, destruction of clinics, and harassment, detention, injury, or even killing of first responders.
A paramedic from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society recounted a raid on a stabilization point in Tubas. 'Israeli forces surrounded the stabilization point, closing both entrances, even though it was very clear that this was a medical building,' the medic said, adding: 'They ordered all the paramedics to exit. There were around 22 of us. Israeli soldiers shot inside and outside the building, damaging our supplies and the stabilization point.'
The report emphasized that roadblocks, curfews, and lockdowns imposed by the Israeli military have made it nearly impossible for patients in remote areas, including those in Jenin and Nablus, to access healthcare. It noted that people with chronic illnesses such as kidney disease have missed critical treatments like dialysis due to these restrictions.