9 October 2025
Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) welcomes the announcement of the first phase of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas as a vital and long-overdue step that will bring hope and relief to the more than two million Palestinians who have endured two years of Israel’s escalated bombardment, forced displacement, starvation, and siege.
World leaders must ensure that the ceasefire becomes permanent, ending Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The catastrophic humanitarian and healthcare situation should be urgently alleviated. In the past two years, the Israeli military has systematically dismantled Gaza’s healthcare system, at least 1,722 healthcare workers have been killed, and more than 300 detained. Almost every single hospital in Gaza has been attacked and none remain fully functional.
The recovery of Gaza’s health sector demands the immediate release of all healthcare workers arbitrarily detained from Gaza. Safe passage for patients and medical personnel must be allowed, and unhindered humanitarian relief must immediately flood into Gaza. UN and international aid agencies must be permitted to deliver life-saving assistance safely and at scale. All hospitals damaged by Israeli forces must be rebuilt and reopened to offer vital care. Displaced families, who have spent over two years sleeping on the streets or in makeshift tents through extreme cold and heat, without adequate shelter or sanitation, must be allowed to return and rebuild their homes.
MAP warns that while a ceasefire is essential, the journey toward recovery from Gaza’s health and humanitarian catastrophe will be long and difficult. Famine, injury, disease, forced displacement, and the near-total collapse of Gaza’s health system mean that Palestinian lives remain at grave risk even as the bombs stop falling.
Fikr Shalltoot, MAP’s Gaza Director, said: "This ceasefire must be permanent and the end of the Israeli military’s mass killing, not a pause before it begins again. Gaza has been turned into a graveyard and the healthcare system has been systematically destroyed. For two years, we have witnessed unspeakable atrocities and lost hundreds of fellow humanitarian and healthcare workers, as well as too many family members and friends to count – now the world must act."
"Our team is ready to rebuild, to heal, and to deliver medical aid for Palestinians. But we need access, Palestinians need aid, and the world demands accountability."
MAP’s local teams have endured unimaginable conditions for two years yet the organisation has delivered its biggest humanitarian response in its history, demonstrating extraordinary resolve and commitment. MAP stands ready to scale up its medical and humanitarian response further, and help rebuild Gaza’s shattered health system as soon as access is restored.
Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians, including extermination, collective punishment and genocide, must be permanently brought to an end. Those responsible for violating international law must be held fully accountable. A comprehensive arms embargo must be imposed on Israel.
The international community must also ensure that this ceasefire does not come at the cost of escalating violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank from Israeli forces and settlers. During the last temporary ceasefire, Israeli forces and settlers escalated attacks, violence, and movement restrictions. Since then, the West Bank has witnessed the largest wave of forced displacement since 1967, with 40,000 people now displaced from Jenin/Tulkarm in the north.