‘Promises of safe areas are empty,’ Doctors Without Borders says
The “promises of safe areas are empty,” and Israeli forces are not ensuring civilian safety in Gaza after two people were killed at its shelter in Khan Younis last night, the general director of Médecins Sans Frontières said.
According to the group, also known as Doctors Without Borders, an Israeli tank shell hit a known and clearly marked shelter where its aid workers and their families were housed in Al-Mawasi. The 64 people inside were not given an evacuation order and Israeli forces were “regularly informed” about the MSF team’s location, the organization said.
“The amount of force being used in a densely populated urban area is staggering, and targeting a building knowing it is full of humanitarian workers and their families is unconscionable,” MSF general director Meinie Nicolai, said in a statement.
A staff member’s wife and daughter-in-law where killed in the hit to the building, and shelling in the area delayed ambulances for the injured for two hours, according to MSF.
“We are outraged and deeply saddened by these killings,” Nicolai said. “On the same day the United States chose to veto an immediate ceasefire, two daughters saw their mother and sister-in-law killed by an Israeli tank shell.”
The IDF declined to comment to NBC News on the matter, and the aid organization said it has contacted Israeli authorities seeking an explanation.