MÉDECINS DU MONDE TÜRKİYE:
GROUND OFFENSIVE IN GAZA DEEPENS FAMINE AND HUMANITARIAN COLLAPSE

Istanbul. September 17, 2025. Press Release.

Dünya Doktorları (DDD)/Médecins du Monde (MdM) Türkiye is gravely alarmed by the ground offensive launched by Israeli forces into Gaza City on September 16, 2025. This escalation, following weeks of bombardment, threatens to turn an already catastrophic crisis into a full-scale humanitarian disaster.

Since October 7, 2023, the Gaza Ministry of Health has reported over 64,900 deaths and 164,610 injuries among Palestinians. The toll continues to rise daily. Since late May 2025, more than 2,494 people have been killed and 18,135 injured while trying to access humanitarian aid.

The United Nations has confirmed famine in Gaza Governorate, including Gaza City. Over 500,000 people are already experiencing famine conditions, and this figure may reach 640,000 by the end of September. One in three residents goes for days without food, while child malnutrition has quadrupled in recent months to 16.5 percent.

The health system is collapsing. Ninety-four percent of hospitals have been damaged or destroyed. Facilities such as Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli are overwhelmed, operating at nearly 300% capacity without sufficient medicine, power, or clean water. Throughout Gaza, entire cities have been razed to the ground, along with their life-sustaining public infrastructure, such as hospitals and water treatment plants. Agricultural land has been systemically destroyed by Israel.

Displacement adds to the suffering. Since March 2025, more than 856,000 displacement movements have been recorded. Families flee repeatedly, only to find no safe refuge. Nine out of 10 people in Gaza’s 2.1 million population have been forcibly displaced – most of them multiple times – into increasingly shrinking pockets of land that cannot sustain human life.

We have seen countless Palestinians who have lost limbs as a result of Israel’s bombardment. We have seen children so traumatized by daily airstrikes that they cannot sleep. Some cannot speak. Others have told us they want to die to join their parents in heaven.

We have seen families who eat animal food to survive and boil leaves as a meal for their children.

Yet world leaders fail to act. Facts are ignored. Testimony is cast aside. And more people are killed as a direct consequence.

We have been denied access, and the militarization of the aid system has proved deadly. Thousands of people have been shot at while trying to reach the handful of sites where food is distributed under armed guard.

The new ground assault will only intensify these conditions. More deaths, more hunger, and more destruction of homes and hospitals are inevitable unless urgent action is taken.

What we are witnessing in Gaza is not only an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, but what the UN Commission of Inquiry has now concluded is a genocide.

DDD/MdM Türkiye calls for:

• An immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
• Unhindered humanitarian access to deliver food, water, medicine, and fuel.
• The protection of civilians and medical facilities in line with international humanitarian law.

The situation in Gaza is catastrophic and rapidly worsening. The international community must act urgently to halt the violence, ensure humanitarian access, and prevent further loss of innocent lives. States must use every available political, economic, and legal tool at their disposal to intervene. Rhetoric and half measures are not enough. This moment demands decisive action.

Photo credit ©Anadolu Agency