Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has condemned the Israeli authorities' decision to close two cases referred by the organization for review without opening criminal investigations.
The two cases concern multiple attacks on an MSF convoy in Gaza City in November 2023, which killed two people, and an airstrike on an MSF shelter in Khan Younis in February 2024, which killed two people and injured six others.
In a statement, MSF said the decision came nearly two years after it submitted its requests and after the organization petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court over the military prosecutor’s failure to respond to its formal requests.
MSF described the decision as unjust and unacceptable, criticizing the closure of the cases after two years of silence.
"This is not surprising when a military institution is tasked with investigating its own actions,” the organization said, arguing that the system had demonstrated an unwillingness to address violations in Gaza that may amount to war crimes.
MSF said its staff members and their family members had been killed by Israeli forces despite the organization having notified Israeli authorities of their locations. The vehicles involved were also clearly marked with the organization’s emblem, it said.
The organization said the decision effectively confirmed that there would be no meaningful accountability within Israel’s legal system for the deaths of its staff, and called for the cases to be reviewed by an independent, impartial investigative body.
According to MSF, 15 of its staff members have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023, along with around 1,700 healthcare workers.
MSF reiterated that no military objective can justify the mass killing of civilians and that an internal military review cannot replace genuine, independent and impartial accountability.
