MSF triggers backlash after saying it is 'prepared' to share list of Palestinian staff with Israel

International NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is under fire after it confirmed in a statement on Saturday that it is prepared to share a "defined list" of its Palestinian and international staff names with Israel.

In the statement, the organisation said the decision was taken to avoid Israel suspending their vital humanitarian operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories "following unreasonable demands to hand over personal information about [their] staff".

The decision comes after Israel announced a series of restrictions aimed at barring humanitarian organisations from operating in Gaza if they are deemed to be "delegitimising Israel". The move led Israel to revoke the licences of 37 international NGOs from 1 January, including MSF, International Rescue Committee, ActionAid, and Norwegian Council.

Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed over 71,000 Palestinians, has devastated the Strip, plunging it into a dire humanitarian crisis and causing famine in some areas last year. 

Describing their position as "an impossible choice", MSF appeared to justify their decision, saying it was taken following "extensive discussions" with Palestinian colleagues.

The NGO said their "priority remains the safety of [their] staff while continuing to provide independent essential healthcare for Palestinians across the West Bank and Gaza in dire need".

'Moral bankruptcy'

Ghassan Abu Sitta, a renowned British-Palestinian reconstructive surgeon who volunteered in Gaza amid the war, described MSF’s decision to mull sharing details on their staff as "moral bankruptcy", suggesting that Palestinians were unable to consent freely during a genocide.

"Their [MSF] employees have as much choice as the Palestinians who knowingly went to their death at the Feeding Stations to feed their families," he said, referring to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution sites where staff killed over 1,000 aid-seekers amid the war on the enclave. 

Online, activists have shared a document containing anonymous testimonies gathered from MSF staff speaking about the concerns the decision to possibly pass on information raises, including Israel’s "illicit use of this data," where "sharing such information puts individuals at risk".

Many of the testimonies state that employees fear that Israel has the capacity to "escalate to targeting patients and their families, as well as the families of employees", if it gains access to the identities of the NGO’s workers.

"An organisation built on medical ethics, neutrality, and the duty to protect has chosen instead to offer its Palestinian staff—people already living under siege, surveillance, and collective punishment—up on a silver platter to the occupying Israeli entity. Not out of necessity. Not under force. But through a willingness to comply, to cooperate," one anonymous testimony reads. 

Israel welcomes decision

Israel has come under fire by rights groups after it set a requirement for international NGOs to sign a clause that critics argue is deliberately vague to criminalise humanitarian work and advocacy.

Israel appeared to welcome MSF's actions, stating that providing information on their staff "is a security requirement of the highest order".

The Israeli ministry of diaspora affairs, which oversees international organisations operating in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, alleges that the requirement is "based on clear and irrefutable evidence that employees of MSF and other aid organisations have, in the past, simultaneously operated as terrorist operatives," without providing evidence for the claim.

Doctors Without Borders, however, have refuted the allegations. 

The decision from MSF has sparked further divisions among medical staff and experts, with a statement from Dr. Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, who served as the deputy medical coordinator for MSF’s operations in Palestine throughout the war, saying what happened"does not help either staff or patients".

According to Dr. Mughaisib, "the majority of national staff agreed to provide their names because the alternative was the total collapse of medical services. Losing MSF’s presence would mean losing hundreds of staff and hundreds of thousands of patients who depend on that care."

MSF continues to operate six hospitals, seven healthcare centres, and four clinics in the besieged Gaza Strip, providing essential humanitarian assistance at a time when Palestinians are in dire need of aid.

Since the beginning of the year, however, Israel has continued to block the entry of the organisation’s aid supplies and deny all requests for MSF international staff to enter Gaza, despite having an obligation to allow aid to flow into the Strip as per the terms of the ceasefire agreement.

Since October 2023, at least 1,700 health workers have been killed by Israel, including 15 MSF staff. 

Correction: An earlier version of this article on 26 January stated that MSF had shared the list of their staff names with Israel. This has been amended to state they were prepared to share the names. Since this story was published, MSF has now ruled out cooperating with Israel on this issue.