The planned suspension of a major medical charity’s work in Gaza is being described as a tipping point that could push an already shattered health system into collapse. Medical leaders warn that ending these operations will leave vast numbers of civilians without access to life-saving treatment, at a moment when needs are surging under a prolonged genocidal war that has exhausted hospitals, staff and supplies.

The decision follows demands imposed by Israeli authorities that humanitarian organisations comply with new conditions, which aid groups say cannot be met without placing their staff at serious risk. Faced with the absence of credible security guarantees, the organisation chose not to comply, a move that will bring its work in Gaza and the West Bank to a halt in the coming weeks. Its leadership has described the measure as a pretext to further restrict humanitarian access, precisely when civilian suffering is at its most acute during the genocidal war.

For Gaza’s population, the consequences are stark. The organisation currently provides a significant share of hospital beds and runs numerous health centres across the territory. Its teams have delivered hundreds of thousands of outpatient consultations, treated large numbers of trauma cases, supported thousands of births and supplied vast quantities of clean water. Removing this capacity, medical officials say, will leave gaps that no other provider can realistically fill, accelerating preventable deaths and long-term harm.

The charity has also rejected allegations levelled against individual staff members, saying no evidence has been presented and warning of an orchestrated effort to undermine independent humanitarian actors. Its leadership argues that forcing aid agencies into impossible choices between staff safety and patient care undermines medical neutrality and violates basic humanitarian principles. Without independent organisations on the ground, they warn, conditions that are already catastrophic will deteriorate even further as the genocidal war continues.

Calls are now growing for sustained international pressure to reverse the restrictions and allow humanitarian work to proceed unhindered. Medical leaders stress that Gaza requires a massive expansion of aid, not new barriers, if its population is to survive the compounded effects of destruction, displacement and a health system pushed to the brink by a genocidal war.