Danielle Haas knows all about NGOs. Having worked for Human Rights Watch for some fifteen years, she was well placed to see how so many NGOs, like HRW or Amnesty or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), have lost their bearings and been captured by ideology. See, for instance, her JC article from March – Ideological rot has hollowed out human rights NGOs from within.
She recently wrote on Amnesty vs. JK Rowling at Quillette, with a shortened version appearing in the Times this week.
Now, on MSF:
Relevant for supposedly credible & rigorous NGOs including @amnesty & @hrw to mention is that, in Gaza, hospitals aren’t always neutral medical spaces & doctors aren’t always so hot on their Hippocratic oaths. For example:
– Hostages and hospitals: A UN Commission verified footage of armed men bringing two Oct. 7 hostages into Al-Shifa and confirmed that vehicles used to transport hostages were brought onto its premises. Surviving hostages have also reported direct interaction with medical personnel while in captivity: Itay Regev says a doctor removed a bullet from his leg without anaesthetic while Hamas operatives stood by; Moran Stella Yanai says a doctor addressed her in Hebrew as she pleaded for help; and Emily Damari says she was taken to Al-Shifa and operated on after being shot. Hamas acknowledged hostages were taken to Shifa.
– Continued armed activity: MSF itself acknowledged masked armed men, intimidation, arbitrary arrests of patients and suspected movement of weapons at Nasser Hospital — prompting it to suspend non-critical activities on January 20 2026. It buried the info in the last item of collapsed fact sheet online.
– MSF and militants: MSF employed Fadi Al-Wadiya, whom Israel accused of being a PIJ operative. MSF disputed the allegation saying it had “no indication” the accusations were true, without making public what steps it had taken to check the information; in February 2026, PIJ publicly identified Al-Wadiya as having been a member.
– Doctors facing specific Israeli allegations: Israel alleges Kamal Adwan director Dr Hussam Abu Safiya is a Hamas colonel; an image has circulated showing him in military fatigues alongside Hamas figures. Dr Iyad al-Rantisi was reportedly detained on suspicion of involvement in concealing Israeli hostages.
– Lack of hiring protocols and knowledge of staff working alongside militants: According to first-hand testimony from MSF staff (Insiders Speak report, p. 50, EiGHT):
“We know very well that in Nasser Hospital, key players—the Hamas Ministry of Health people—had moved back into office and were not welcome on that floor. There had always been doors you were expected to avoid.… They were in the hospitals. The outrage over it…MSF is, ‘Oh my God, these sacred spaces!’ The people who have breached these sacred spaces, we know it’s Hamas. We know that. So, the outrage is clearly misplaced.”
“There were probably 10 of us in the room when this person described this [working alongside militants in Gaza hospitals, while employed by MSF]. And everybody just looked so, ‘Oh my God, they said it. They shouldn’t have said it.’”
“We don’t do any background checks on anyone we hire in Gaza.”
“They decided to just proceed [in the hiring process involving two suspected Hamas militants, flagged by their Gaza staff]. It looks so shady. We won’t hire them, but we have to go ahead with the test.… We’re putting everyone at risk, and this is what the staff is saying. And we were just going ahead even when we knew.”
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