“This is not justice,” said the healthcare charity. “Two years of silence, followed by closures that raise more questions than they answer, is unacceptable.”
A building belonging to the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) was targeted by Israeli tank fire in the al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on February 21, 2024.
(Photo by Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Julia Conley
Aug 20, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
The international healthcare charity Médecins Sans Frontières on Thursday joined the humanitarian group World Central Kitchen in demanding that an “impartial investigative body” examine deadly Israeli attacks on its staffers in Gaza, following the Israeli military’s announcement that it was closing the cases without opening a criminal investigation.
MSF, also known in English as Doctors Without Borders, noted that the decision by the Israeli military advocate general (MAG) did “not come as a surprise” and was “the predictable output of a military apparatus investigating itself.”
The Israel Defense Forces and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, said the France-based organization, have proven themselves “unwilling to respond to the extent of violations that may amount to war crimes emerging from Gaza,” with Israeli officials continuing to insist that the IDF has been targeting Hamas with its bombardment of Gaza—despite the fact that the death toll of more than 73,000 Palestinians includes at least 22,000 women and 20,000 children and that healthcare facilities, schools, and at least 92% of residential buildings have been destroyed or damaged in attacks.
In addition, said MSF, 15 staff members of the healthcare organization have been killed by Israeli forces since they began bombarding Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack in October 2023, including two who were killed in multiple attacks on an aid convoy in Gaza City in November 2023 and two who were killed in a strike on an MSF shelter in Khan Younis in February 2024.
“There is no military objective that justifies the wholesale sacrifice of civilians. And there is no internal military review that can substitute for genuine, independent, and impartial accountability.”
MSF submitted those cases to the MAG for review, but along with an attack that killed seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers in April 2024, the military said there was no suspicion of criminal conduct in the assaults on MSF workers.
“This is not justice,” said MSF. “Two years of silence, followed by closures that raise more questions than they answer, is unacceptable.”
“MSF staff and their family members are dead. Their names are known,” the group continued. “Their locations were shared. Their vehicles were identified. We have always maintained that all elements point to a clear responsibility of the Israeli army for the deadly attacks. And yet, those responsible for their deaths have declined to pursue any criminal investigation.”
The decision by the MAG makes clear, said the group, that “there is no prospect of accountability within the Israeli legal system for the killing of our staff, just as there has been no accountability for Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians.”
Following the MAG’s announcement on Wednesday, World Central Kitchen issued a statement condemning Israel’s “account of the deaths of our seven colleagues on April 1, 2024.”
“We fundamentally disagree with their decision about criminal investigations into the IDF airstrikes that killed our team,” said WCK. “There has never been any excuse or justification for the attacks, and there is nothing in this account that does so. The decision is inconsistent with the full truth and deeply offensive.”
Israeli authorities did not issue a warning to WCK before it attacked the aid organization’s convoy, which was traveling through what was supposed to be a deconflicted zone when it was struck.
“At the time of the lethal attacks, the IDF knew that our team in Gaza was unarmed and posing a threat to nobody. It had full visual clarity on our clearly marked humanitarian vehicles during the extended, multiple airstrikes. It knew our team’s movements, identities, and activities in advance,” said WCK. “We continue to demand truth and justice for our team and their families. We continue to demand an independent commission to investigate the airstrikes because the IDF cannot credibly investigate its own conduct. And we continue to grieve the loss of our friends.”
MSF stressed that Israel’s decision to “close” the cases of the attacks “must be understood in their proper context: In Gaza, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed. Healthcare facilities have been destroyed. Humanitarian convoys have been struck. Journalists, medical personnel, UN personnel, and aid workers have been killed in numbers unprecedented in any recent conflict.”
“MSF reaffirms what we have stated since the beginning of this violence: There is no military objective that justifies the wholesale sacrifice of civilians,” said the group. “And there is no internal military review that can substitute for genuine, independent, and impartial accountability.”
“To our colleagues we have lost,” MSF added, “and to the countless civilians and humanitarian workers who have perished in Gaza: We will not let your deaths be filed away as procedural inevitabilities. You deserved protection. You deserve justice.”
Drone Attacks Drove Record-Breaking Violence Against Aid Workers in 2025: UN
A majority of aid workers who were killed last year died in attacks in Gaza, despite a ceasefire that was reached last October.
Eight civil defense and Palestinian Red Crescent members who were killed in an attack by the Israeli army on an ambulance and fire truck were brought to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza on March 30, 2025.
(Photo by Abdallah F.S. Alattar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Julia Conley
Aug 19, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
“The technology may change, but the laws of war do not,” said the United Nations’ top humanitarian official on Wednesday as the international community marked World Humanitarian Day—and a record number of violent attacks against aid workers in 2025, with the expanded use of drones partially driving the increased threat to workers’ safety.
According to the Aid Worker Security Database and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 907 aid workers were killed, injured, or kidnapped last year.
Nearly 300 more were detained or arrested, said OCHA.
The number of humanitarians who were killed dropped slightly from the previous year, down to 350 from 387. But the death toll was the second highest ever recorded, and a majority of those killed—186—were attacked in Gaza, despite a “ceasefire” agreement that was reached last October.
More than two-thirds of those killed in Gaza were victims of aerial bombardment.
OCHA noted that “cheap and adaptable armed drones are putting lethal capabilities into more hands,” with armies now able to wage more explosive attacks from afar and reach “deeper into towns and cities.”
The prevalence of armed drones has been linked to 80% of civilian deaths in Sudan in the first four months of this year, while in Colombia, weaponized drone attacks quadrupled between 2024-25.
As the technology of war changes, said OCHA, “our humanity must not... Civilians, including humanitarians, must be protected.”
One aid worker was killed in March in the Democratic Republic of Congo when a drone struck a residential building, while four humanitarian convoys were attacked by drones in a single week in May in Ukraine.
“Weaponized drones have become the new face of an old danger: the deliberate or reckless destruction of civilian life,” said Tom Fletcher, the UN humanitarian chief.
“But just calling it out will not protect the next aid worker,” Fletcher added. “States must uphold international humanitarian law and use every tool to protect civilians and our colleagues. And for those who break the rules, there must be real consequences.”
So far in 2026, 82 aid workers have already been killed, while 322 have been injured and 235 have been kidnapped.
“On World Humanitarian Day, we honor humanitarian workers everywhere, and the courage and sacrifices they make every day to help others,” said the global humanitarian group Oxfam. “We stand in solidarity with our staff and partners on the frontlines, often working at immense personal risk, and urge governments to uphold their obligations to protect them.”
A majority of aid workers who were killed last year died in attacks in Gaza, despite a ceasefire that was reached last October.
Eight civil defense and Palestinian Red Crescent members who were killed in an attack by the Israeli army on an ambulance and fire truck were brought to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza on March 30, 2025.
(Photo by Abdallah F.S. Alattar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Julia Conley
Aug 19, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
“The technology may change, but the laws of war do not,” said the United Nations’ top humanitarian official on Wednesday as the international community marked World Humanitarian Day—and a record number of violent attacks against aid workers in 2025, with the expanded use of drones partially driving the increased threat to workers’ safety.
According to the Aid Worker Security Database and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 907 aid workers were killed, injured, or kidnapped last year.
Nearly 300 more were detained or arrested, said OCHA.
The number of humanitarians who were killed dropped slightly from the previous year, down to 350 from 387. But the death toll was the second highest ever recorded, and a majority of those killed—186—were attacked in Gaza, despite a “ceasefire” agreement that was reached last October.
More than two-thirds of those killed in Gaza were victims of aerial bombardment.
OCHA noted that “cheap and adaptable armed drones are putting lethal capabilities into more hands,” with armies now able to wage more explosive attacks from afar and reach “deeper into towns and cities.”
The prevalence of armed drones has been linked to 80% of civilian deaths in Sudan in the first four months of this year, while in Colombia, weaponized drone attacks quadrupled between 2024-25.
As the technology of war changes, said OCHA, “our humanity must not... Civilians, including humanitarians, must be protected.”
One aid worker was killed in March in the Democratic Republic of Congo when a drone struck a residential building, while four humanitarian convoys were attacked by drones in a single week in May in Ukraine.
“Weaponized drones have become the new face of an old danger: the deliberate or reckless destruction of civilian life,” said Tom Fletcher, the UN humanitarian chief.
“But just calling it out will not protect the next aid worker,” Fletcher added. “States must uphold international humanitarian law and use every tool to protect civilians and our colleagues. And for those who break the rules, there must be real consequences.”
So far in 2026, 82 aid workers have already been killed, while 322 have been injured and 235 have been kidnapped.
“On World Humanitarian Day, we honor humanitarian workers everywhere, and the courage and sacrifices they make every day to help others,” said the global humanitarian group Oxfam. “We stand in solidarity with our staff and partners on the frontlines, often working at immense personal risk, and urge governments to uphold their obligations to protect them.”
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