Activities

• MSF claims to provide “emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare… irrespective of race, religion, gender or political affiliation.”
• According to MSF’s Charter, volunteers “observe[] neutrality and impartiality” and “undertake to respect their professional code of ethics and to maintain complete independence from all political, economic and religious powers.”
• In practice, however, MSF consistently abuses its status as a humanitarian organization to launch venomous anti-Israel political campaigns.
• In August 2025, a spokesperson for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation accused MSF staff at Nasser Hospital of refusing to treat humanitarian workers who had been wounded in a Hamas attack. 
• In March 2024, MSF Canada’s treasurer Bryon Sonberg resigned claiming MSF “claims to be independent, neutral and impartial” are “untrue.” He expressed concerns that “MSF Canada failed to condemn October 7 or correct false statements on social media about the conflict.” According to Sonberg, “When I asked about MSF’s silence about the October 7 Hamas attacks, I was told that MSF only comments on what it witnesses; as MSF did not witness the attacks or their effects, they could not comment on them.”
• In December 2023, former MSF Secretary General Alain Destexhe published a report titled “Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), an Accomplice of Hamas?” According to Destexhe, “The communication of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and its employees on the ground since 7 October shows a systematic bias in favour of Hamas and hostility to Israel. Doctors Without Borders has failed in its humanitarian purpose and violated its own charter, which proclaims the impartiality, neutrality and independence of the organization with regard to any political or religious power…Despite being subject to the MSF Charter, a significant proportion of its staff seem to share the Hamas point of view and support the terrorist attacks of 7 October…The proximity between some MSF staff and Hamas raises questions about possible links between MSF in Gaza and extremist groups” (emphasis in original).

Political Advocacy

• MSF rhetoric includes accusing Israel of “genocide,” “collective punishment,” “apartheid,” “indiscriminate bombings,” and “wholesale massacres,” while omitting the victims of Palestinian atrocities and Hamas’ large scale-use of hospitals, residences and schools for terror attacks.
• In September 2025, MSF France called on France to “ensure that no weapons, ammunition or components of French origin are used by the Israeli army to conduct its genocidal war in Gaza.”
• In September 2025, MSF launched a campaign titled “Doctors Can’t Stop Genocide – World Leaders Can.”
• In June 2025, MSF Switzerland issued a public appeal to the Swiss Federal Council under the headline “Switzerland Cannot Hide Behind Neutrality in the Face of Genocide in Gaza!” MSF argued that “Neutrality cannot be an excuse in the face of genocide. Silence kills. Inaction is not an option,” and called on all governments to demand an end to the genocide and related tactics. 
• In December 2024, MSF published a report titled “Gaza: Life in a death trap.” MSF claimed “Our firsthand observations of the medical and humanitarian catastrophe inflicted on Gaza are consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organisations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza…we are witnessing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinian life is being wiped off the area…While we don’t have legal authority to establish intentionality, the signs of ethnic cleansing and the ongoing devastation—including mass killings, severe physical and mental health injuries, forced displacement, and impossible conditions of life for Palestinians under siege and bombardment—are undeniable.”
• In February 2024, in a briefing to the UN Security Council, MSF’s Security General Christopher Lockyear described the Gaza conflict as “a war of collective punishment, a war without rules, a war at all costs.” He also accused key UNSC members, particularly the United States, of “not just political inaction – it has become political complicity.”
• In December 2023, following the U.S. vetoing a UN ceasefire resolution, MSF USA Executive Director Avril Benoît issued a statement, calling the veto “a vote against humanity” and accused the U.S. of providing “diplomatic cover for the ongoing atrocities in Gaza.”
• In October 2023, MSF tweeted, “We are horrified by the recent Israeli bombing of Ahli Arab Hospital in #Gaza City, which was treating patients and hosting displaced Gazans. Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed. This is a massacre. It is absolutely unacceptable…” MSF ignored the videos, images, and intelligence materials demonstrating that an Islamic Jihad rocket had “misfired” (i.e. detonated in Gaza instead of Israel) and hit the hospital parking lot.
  • In February 2024, MSF issued a statement claiming, “Although we immediately blamed Israel for the bombing of al-Ahli Arab’s’ hospital on October 17 late in the day in Gaza, resulting in the deaths of several hundred people, it is impossible for MSF to say for sure who is responsible.”
• In October 2023, beginning directly after the Al-Ahli airstrike, MSF systematically used Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah as a global spokesperson when his accusation “this is a massacre” went viral. 
  • In a press release, the “massacre” accusation was attributed to Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, who afterward became a global spokesperson for MSF. Since then, his apparent endorsement of violent armed resistance against Israel, glorification of terrorists, and documented history of praising PFLP terrorists and mourning PIJ commanders has not stopped MSF from using his “situated testimony” to accuse Israel of genocide.
• MSF also repeatedly denied that Hamas was present in Gaza hospitals, claiming that “we have seen no evidence that the hospital buildings or the compounds are being used by Hamas as a military base.” 
• In June 2021, MSF posted an article titled “The Disease of Settler Colonialism and Apartheid.” According to the article, “MSF will continue treating the wounds of this violence, but the cure for Palestinian suffering will only come with the end of settler colonialism and apartheid…We are treating the consequences of settler colonialism and apartheid, for which we have no medical cure.”
• In May 2018, during the violence on the Gaza border, MSF condemned Israel’s use of force, describing it as “unacceptable and inhuman.” MSF further claimed that “this bloodbath is the continuation of the Israeli army’s policy during the last seven weeks: shooting with live ammunition at demonstrators, on the assumption that anyone approaching the separation fence is a legitimate target.” MSF ignored the violent nature of the protests, which included Molotov cocktails, arson, and attempts to breach the border fence with Israel.
• In August 2016, MSF celebrated its 20 year anniversary of working in Hebron with a “play which displays the ongiong [sic] struggle in Hebron’s H2 area…[and a] photo exhibition showcasing the psychological effects of occupation and violence on Palestinians.”
• In December 2015, MSF-France launched an exhibition titled “In Between Wars,” meant to display “the haunting and recurrent side of the violence of daily life under occupation.” The exhibition pays tribute to Palestinian “martyrs” and refers to images of “Palestinian young throw[ing] stones and Molotov cocktails at heavily armed Israeli soldiers” as scenes “iconic of the Palestinian resistance against occupation.” The exhibition was described by the head of MSF-USA as “depicting the humanitarian hardships Palestinians face,” but, in reality, the exhibition served as a showcase for virulent anti-Israel propaganda.
  • Roger Cukierman, head of the Council of Jewish Institutions in France, condemned the display as “an apology for terrorism…that could inflame antisemitic violence.”
  • In 2016, the exhibition was displayed in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
• In September 2015, MSF-Spain published a short video glorifying 14-year old Palestinian Ahed Tamimi, who has engaged in numerous provocations against the IDF. In the video, Tamimi is pictured under posters of family members whom she refers to as “martyrs.” One of them, Muataz Washaha, was a member of the PFLP terrorist organization who reportedly planned and carried out terror attacks against Israelis across the West Bank.
  • The video claims disingenuously that “every Friday the village [of Nabi Saleh] demonstrates peacefully” against Israeli policy, thus omitting the numerous planned, directed and premeditated violent incidents instigated by the villagers, including by Tamimi herself.
• In a July 7, 2015 opinion piece, MSF-USA Executive Director Jason Cone attacked Israeli security policy while omitting Hamas terror attacks against Israeli civilians, alleging: “Israeli fears of rocket fire from Gaza… and the ongoing threat of tunnel-enabled attacks… cannot justify the devastating medical and psychological consequences for Palestinians of the barriers, checkpoints, bombing campaigns, blockades, and incursions.”
  • Cone contributed to the demonization of Israel by presenting Palestinian rocket attacks against Israeli civilians as being “acts of resistance on one side and terrorism on the other.”
• In a July 2015 promotional video, Mathilde Berthelot, an MSF program manager, charged that Israel uses Palestinian violence “as an alibi for a policy which is repressive and expansionist.” The video refers to Israeli military operations in Gaza as “wholesale massacres” and claims that Palestinians are subjected to daily “humiliation and oppression.”
• MSF’s internet campaign, “Occupied Minds,” features emotive stories of Palestinian suffering and blaming Israel for their situations. The narratives often have little or nothing to do with medical issues. Descriptions of Israeli measures are devoid of context and erase Palestinian terror and Israeli self-defense.
• In July 2014, Jonathan Whittall, head of humanitarian analysis at MSF, accused Israel of trapping an entire population in “what is essentially an open-air prison. “ He continues to say that “Some of the prisoners have organised into armed groups and resist their indefinite detention by firing rockets over the prison wall.”
• In July 2010, MSF worked “closely with an Israeli team of burn specialists” to treat victims of a fuel tanker crash in the Democratic Republic of Congo. According to a Haaretz report, one of Israeli doctors described negative interactions with the MSF volunteers, who “did not want to be around him or the other team members.” In a July 28, 2010 article in the Huffington Post, Alan Dershowitz accused MSF of being “bigoted” and refusing to work with the Israeli doctors. In response, MSF denied that “cooperation was difficult due to alleged anti-Israel sentiment from MSF staff,” or that it “places politics above the best interests of our patients.”
• MSF accused Israel of “devastating disregard” for civilians during the 2009 Gaza war, alleging that Israel conducted “indiscriminate bombings” during the fighting.

Ties to Terror

• In January 2026, the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs revoked MSF’s operating license following a security review that identified specific employees with active terror affiliations and after MSF refused to share its complete list of employees for security vetting. Israeli authorities cited was Nasser Hamdi Abdelatif Al-Shalfouh, an MSF staff member identified by Israeli intelligence as a Hamas sniper who was killed in northern Gaza while engaged in combat operations against the IDF.
• In January 2026, Israeli authorities reported that at least two additional MSF employees held formal memberships in PIJ and Hamas.  
• According to a December 2022 internal memo of the Hamas Ministry of Interior and National Security (MoINS),¹ MSF has a Hamas-approved liaison that serves as the point of contact between Hamas authorities and MSF.
• A February 2020 internal memo of the Hamas Ministry of Interior and National Security (MoINS), detailing Hamas’ strategy of embedding its military infrastructure, fighters, and leadership within hospitals and medical facilities in Gaza, revealed that “Doctors Without Borders (MSF) France chose the only room in Abu Yousef El-Najar Hospital that has a (safe) communication landline which belongs to the positive’s activity, in order for MSF to work in it separately.” (On file with NGO Monitor. “The positive” is a known term for Hamas’ Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.)
• In June 2024, MSF staff member Fadi Al-Wadiya was reportedly killed in an Israeli drone strike. Al-Wadiya was a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad responsible for “developing the terror group’s missiles” and was photographed wearing a PIJ uniform.
• In February 2024, in response to a question concerning MSF’s relationship with Hamas in Gaza, MSF admitted, “MSF works with the Ministry of Health in Gaza, which is the governing authority responsible for health care…Gaza, this includes contact with both the civilian administration led by Hamas and the Israeli authorities.”
• In November 2023, two MSF doctors, Mahmoud Abu Nujaila and Ahmad Al-Sahar, were killed as a result of a strike that hit Al-Awda hospital in Gaza. Al-Awda hospital is run by an NGO linked to the  PFLP terror group, AWDA Health and Community Association (formerly known as the Union of Health Work Committees, or UHWC). (For more information, read NGO Monitor’s report “MSF in Gaza: Terror-linked Employee and Hospital”)
  • Abu Nujaila was the head of the PFLP’s health group, the Democratic Health Association, and has openly supported the PFLP and its violent actions, along with other terrorists who brutally killed Israelis.On October 17, 2021, Abu Nujaila shared a picture of a handwritten stylized text in a notebook that read, “October 17th, when the [gun] silencer cried in joy.” Abu Nujaila wrote, “It was the prettiest day, it was the PFLP’s response, and it was the decree of the people.” He added victory and heart emojis. On October 17, 2001, a PFLP cell directed by PFLP Secretary-General Ahmad Sa’adat assassinated Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi.
  • On April 28, 2023, Al-Sahar shared a photo of a Hamas “field commander” Mohammed Attallah Al-Sahar, along with a picture of his father in military uniform, and wrote, “Yesterday it was his father and now it is him. May Allah have mercy on them and accept them [in heaven] as martyrs.”
• In October 2023, in the aftermath of the brutal Hamas attack on October 7, MSF nurse Asma’a Um Seraj posted on Facebook, “Always remember, Gaza did what all the Arab armies together did not do!!  It dug tunnels with its own hands, it manufactured weapons with its own hands!! It sacrificed its sons, women, young and old, its houses and mosques for the sake of the honor of this land!! It washed away the shame of the treacherous Zionist-supporting Arabs!! It cast the usurping bastard occupying Israeli entity into the mud. It struck its neck and lowered its eyes to the earth and broke its wicked nose!! It challenged their planes and their superior technology!! Let it [i.e. Gaza] be blessed, on the day it was besieged, the day it stood steadfast and the day it won!! As [Mahmoud] Darwish said, Gaza will bring balance to the nation’s history.”
• In October 2023, MSF nurse Nedal Daher shared several clips glorifying the October 7 massacres, including one of a Hamas paraglider with hearts and smiling emojis. Daher also shared a video of Israelis fleeing from Hamas terrorists committing massacres, captioning it as “mass escape.”
• In October 2023, MSF Medical Data Processing officer Noor Sabry published a Facebook post, stating that “Half of Gaza is in Sderot and half of Sderot is in Gaza” and  adding a laughing emoji.
• In October 2023, MSF Deputy Cell Manager for the Middle East Region Amber Alayyan affirmed that MSF had “given donations to the [Gaza] Ministry of Health from our own stocks. We basically emptied our stocks to give to the Ministry of Health.” The Gaza Ministry of Health is a Hamas entity.
• MSF has provided funding to the Abdel Shafi Community Health Association (ACHA), formerly known as the Red Crescent Society for the Gaza Strip (RCS4GS). ACHA was founded and is directed by senior members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Other employees have demonstrated support for Palestinian terror groups and their actions. On multiple occasions, ACHA facilities were used by the PFLP to hold events.
• On August 20, 2018, Hani Majdalawi, a nurse working for MSF, “was shot dead…after shooting and throwing a grenade at soldiers.” On August 24, MSF announced it “is working to verify and understand the circumstances regarding this extremely serious incident, and is not able to comment further at this stage.”
• In 2007, an MSF employee from Gaza was arrested for allegedly plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The NGO responded that “We are very sad for Bashir, but we want to make it very clear that we make a distinction between his professional work and what he does on his personal time. I don’t think our organization can be held liable for every aspect of its staff’s lives.”

Staff

•  In January 2026, MSF hired Tirana Hassan as its new CEO.
  • Before joining MSF, Hassan served as executive director of Human Rights Watch (2020-2025) and director of crisis response at Amnesty International (2015-2020).
  • In November 2023, Hassan sent a letter to EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell and the foreign ministers of EU member states accusing Israel of “unlawful actions,” including: “collective punishment, which is also a war crime”; “the war crime of forced displacement” (for trying to move civilians away from intense fighting in Northern Gaza); “disregard for international humanitarian law”; “unprecedented repression”; “the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians”; “unlawful, indiscriminate and disproportionate use of explosive weapons”; and blocking Palestinians “from exercising their right to return.” 

Other Activities

• In June 2018, several former MSF employees accused MSF staff of “us[ing] local prostitutes while working in Africa.” One whistleblower reported the claim of that “a senior colleague,” who “claimed that it was possible to barter medication for sex.”
• In February 2018, following allegations that Oxfam staff hired prostitutes, MSF admitted it had fired 19 staff for sexual harassment in 2017.

2020-2024 Grants Received (amounts in Euro)