Doctors Without Borders: Rafah Devastated and Clearing Israeli Remnants Will Take Years
MSF warns of widespread destruction in Rafah and the long-term dangers posed by unexploded ordnance, delaying reconstruction and endangering residents.
Watan-Doctors Without Borders (MSF) stated on Monday that the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza, is “devastated” as a result of what it described as Israeli genocide. It highlighted that clearing the unexploded ordnance scattered among homes will take years, hindering reconstruction efforts.
This was according to a statement by Pascal Cuissard, the organization’s emergency coordinator, published on MSF’s website.
Cuissard emphasized the “urgent need to provide healthcare services, humanitarian aid, and rebuild the city so life can return to Rafah.” However, she warned that it remains “extremely dangerous for Palestinians to return to most areas.”
Describing the situation in Rafah, the health official said: “On our way to visit MSF’s former clinic in Rafah, we saw a child playing with an unexploded shell in the Mawasi area,” which stretches along the Mediterranean coast from southern Deir al-Balah to northern Rafah.
Cuissard added: “Although we no longer hear the sound of bombs, their dangers persist.”
She explained that “Palestinians are trying to rebuild Rafah from the rubble, but the area is unsafe due to unexploded ordnance scattered in the remains of buildings, which will take years to clear.”
She noted that “everything in Rafah is destroyed (due to the Israeli genocide); homes, shops, streets, and health facilities have turned into rubble, and electricity and water systems have been damaged as well.”
In the same context, Nadia Abu Malouh, assistant field coordinator for MSF who had worked at the Emirati Maternity Hospital in Tel al-Sultan, west of Rafah, said: “We couldn’t even recognize the roads leading to the hospital due to the extent of the destruction,” according to the organization’s website.
Abu Malouh added: “It’s heartbreaking to see the hospital that was once full of life now completely empty, with no signs of life. Everything has been destroyed (by Israel).”
It is worth noting that Rafah governorate, like other areas in Gaza, suffered widespread destruction during the Israeli ground military operation that began in the city on May 6, 2024.
In May 2024, Rafah hosted the largest gathering of displaced Palestinians in Gaza, with an estimated 1.5 million people living in tents and temporary shelters. Under these inhumane conditions, Palestinians faced outbreaks of disease, malnutrition, and the psychological toll of repeated forced displacement, according to the MSF statement.
Over more than 15 months of genocide, Israel forced nearly two million Palestinians in Gaza to flee their homes and move to southern and central parts of the strip, including hundreds of thousands displaced from Gaza City and the north.
On January 19, 2025, a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel went into effect, initially lasting 42 days. During this phase, negotiations will take place to begin a second and third phase under Egyptian and Qatari mediation with U.S. support.
With American backing, Israel carried out genocide in Gaza between October 7, 2023, and January 19, 2025, leaving approximately 159,000 Palestinians dead or injured, most of them children and women, and over 14,000 missing.
