Doctors Without Borders waits for Israeli details of killing of staffer

International medical relief charity Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said it is will waiting for Israeli authorities to reveal details about the killing of medic Hani Mohammed Almajdalawi in the occupied Gaza Strip earlier this month.

In a statement issued yesterday, MSF noted that “over one week has passed since MSF learnt about the death of [Almajdalawi]”, one of the group’s “Palestinian medical staff in Gaza”.

Hani was killed on 20 August by Israeli forces who seized his body and have withheld it ever since.

“While MSF representatives have met with the Israeli authorities over recent days”, the statement continued, “we have not yet received information clarifying the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr. Almajdalawi, and therefore cannot confirm the reported versions of events”.

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According to Israeli authorities, Almajdalawi opened fire on Israeli occupation forces before being shot dead.

“Hani Mohammed Almajdalawi worked as a nurse at one of MSF’s post-operative clinics in Gaza since 2014,” the MSF statement added. “He was a valued member of our staff who was committed to his work. At the time of his death he was off duty.”

Since 30 March, MSF said, “we have treated over 1,700 patients, 99 per cent of whom suffered gunshot wounds”, in the context of the Great March of Return in the occupied Gaza Strip.

“MSF has tripled teams’ surgical capacity and post-operative care, to respond to the volume of people injured. We currently have four surgical teams operating in hospitals across Gaza, and four post-operative clinics that provide nursing care, physiotherapy and rehabilitation,” it concluded.