Doctors Without Borders Halts Work at Gaza’s Nasser Hospital, Citing Armed Men and Suspected Weapons Movement

Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) says it has stopped operating at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, after its staff documented what it called a pattern of 'unacceptable acts' including the presence of armed men, intimidation, arbitrary arrests of patients and a 'suspicion of movement of weapons' inside the facility. The Israel Defense Forces responded that it has long held intelligence that Nasser Hospital serves as a headquarters and military post for senior Hamas operatives, calling MSF’s withdrawal 'important' but 'too late' and further evidence of the need to disarm Hamas under the current ceasefire. A White House official, asked whether this constitutes a ceasefire violation, said it could not confirm MSF’s claims but reiterated that any threatening Hamas presence is why Washington keeps insisting Hamas must disarm. The article notes that MSF had previously condemned an IDF raid on Nasser in early 2024 as an illegal attack on a medical facility and that its new language effectively acknowledges combatant and weapons activity there, bolstering Israel’s contention that some Gaza hospitals have been used for military purposes. The shift is already being seized on by pro‑Israel commentators as post‑facto validation of controversial operations against medical sites, while critics of Israel and MSF are arguing online over whether the NGO buried its admission and why it still has not explicitly named Hamas in its description.