Doctors Without Borders condemns deliberate deadly attack on convoy of staff and family members in Gaza
One person was killed and one was injured in an attack today on a convoy of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff members and their families who had been attempting to evacuate from northern Gaza.
The person who was killed was a relative of an MSF staff member. MSF condemns in the strongest terms this deliberate attack.
The convoy was made up of 137 people—Palestinian MSF staff members and their families, including 65 children. Since November 11, they have been trapped in MSF’s guesthouse, office and outpatient clinic near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, because of ongoing fighting, and we have repeatedly called for their safe evacuation.
This morning, they departed at 9:00 a.m. local time with five vehicles, all clearly marked with MSF identification, including on the roofs. MSF had informed both parties to the conflict of this movement.
The convoy went through the itinerary indicated by the Israeli army and reached Salah Al Deen street, along with other civilians trying to leave the area.
The convoy reached the last checkpoint near Wadi Gaza, which was overcrowded at that time due to extensive screenings of Palestinians by Israeli forces. Despite the information shared with the Israeli army, they were not allowed to cross the checkpoint for hours. Shots were later heard by our staff, pushing them to turn back out of fear to return to MSF’s premises, located around seven kilometers [about four miles] from the checkpoint.
On their way back, between 3:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. local time, the convoy was attacked in Al-Wehda street near the junction of Said Al A’as street, near the MSF office. Two of the MSF vehicles were deliberately hit, killing one MSF staff’s family member and injuring another.
MSF calls again to urgently allow the evacuation of our staff, as well as of thousands of other people, trapped by fighting and living in extremely dire conditions in northern Gaza.
We are calling for an immediate ceasefire, which is the only way for corridors to be implemented to safely evacuate trapped civilians.
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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