After Trump-Netanyahu meeting, Israel to ban Doctors Without Borders from Gaza

Yesterday, President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Florida, ostensibly to discuss plans to move forward with Trump’s peace plan for Gaza. Months into its implementation, Hamas has returned the bodies of all Israeli hostages as promised. However, Israel continues to militarily occupy large parts of the Strip and is blocking desperately needed aid from entering the territory, including shelters. Israel has violated the ceasefire on a near-daily basis since it came into effect, including with recent bombings of refugee camps.

One day after that meeting to discuss the future of the ceasefire and Gaza, Israel has announced in will be banning dozens of international aid groups from working in Gaza within the next 36 hours. The Israeli government says that these groups have not turned over records of Palestinians working with them in Gaza, possibly out of fear that they will be targeted for assassination or imprisonment. At least 565 aid and 1500 health workers have been killed in Gaza since October 2023.

One of the groups to be banned is Doctors Without Borders (known as Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF). Throughout Israel’s 2-year military assault on Gaza, MSF doctors from all over the world have rendered life-saving aid to sick and wounded Palestinians. Meanwhile, many of their Palestinian colleagues have been killed or taken prisoner. This includes Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, head of the Kamal Adwan Hospital. Dr. Abu Safiya has been held in an Israeli prison for more than a year and subjected to torture, according to rights groups and his attorney.

Gaza’s fishermen risk imprisonment and death to feed their families.