Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) strongly condemned the Israeli plan to evict some 1000 Palestinians from their homes in the Masafer Yatta area of the West Bank.
“This plan would mean the imminent forcible displacement of almost the entire population of Masafer Yatta” says David Cantero Pérez MSF head of mission. “Where are all these families to go? This is completely unacceptable.”
According to MSF’s statement Israeli authorities have put extraordinary pressure on residents of Masafer Yatta to leave the area.
As well as demolishing people’s homes they have installed checkpoints confiscated residents’ vehicles and enforced curfews and other movement restrictions. These measures which have intensified in recent months have severely impacted residents’ freedom of movement mental health and ability to access basic services including medical care said MSF teams working in the area.
One elderly woman described to MSF staff the moment that Israeli authorities came to demolish her home for the fourth time in two years.
“I felt like I was suffocating like I was blind like my hands were tied” says the woman. “My children were in school when the demolition started they came out to watch. They were in shock in complete silence.”
Another resident told MSF: “They choose the winter for demolishing houses. Tonight our family will sleep in the car or in a tent in the cold. It’s going to be 5 degrees Celsius tonight.”
MSF teams run three clinics in the Masafer Yatta area providing residents with basic healthcare. This includes mental health support and sexual and reproductive health services with a focus on women children and patients with chronic diseases. In 2022 MSF provided 3066 medical consultations in the area.
