The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) voiced sorrow and outrage following the death of a colleague in Gaza on Sunday, as Israeli strikes continued to pound into the enclave, even as negotiators prepared to discuss US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in the Palestinian enclave.
Abed El Hameed Qaradaya, 43, succumbed to shrapnel injuries sustained on Thursday, amid an attack that killed MSF colleague Omar Hayek and injured several others, the organization said.
MSF said the attack was carried out by Israeli forces. It said its staff were waiting for a bus to the charity’s field hospital at the time, and were all wearing MSF vests.
In response to a query by the Times of Israel, the IDF said the strike on October 2 targeted a Hamas operative in central Gaza.
“Reports were received of a local Palestinian employee of an international organization who was killed, along with several local employees who were injured,” the military said, adding that “the details of the incident are under investigation.”
The IDF said that it took steps to mitigate civilian harm in the strike, while stressing that Hamas “embeds itself in the civilian population and exploits it as a human shield for terror purposes.”
El Hameed is the 15th MSF staff member killed in the nearly two-year-long conflict, and the third in less than 20 days.
“His loss is immense and has a tragic impact on his loved ones, MSF and the health system in Gaza,” the Geneva-based NGO said in a statement.
“For 18 years, Abed El Hameed was a cornerstone of MSF’s physiotherapy department in Gaza. He was a unique and invaluable specialist in both physiotherapy and occupational therapy.”
MSF said he innovated and adapted tools, and was the driving force behind opening a 3D physiotherapy department.
“We are profoundly grieved and outraged by the loss of our colleagues — a stark reminder of the pattern of complete disregard for civilian lives and human dignity,” it said.
In June 2024, after another MSF staffer, Fadi al-Wadiya, was killed in an IDF strike, the military said he was an Islamic Jihad operative involved in developing the terror group’s missiles. MSF denied the accusation, then the IDF published a photograph of Wadiya in a PIJ uniform.
Also on Sunday, the IDF published footage showing weapons that it said were left behind by Hamas operatives in a kindergarten and a school in Gaza City.
“Last week, IDF troops identified Hamas terrorists fleeing a kindergarten in al-Shati, Gaza City. The troops later found an explosive device and an AK-47 rifle inside the kindergarten,” the military said on its English-language X account.
In a separate post, the IDF’s international media spokesman, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, posted a picture of uniforms, military equipment, and a Hamas flag in a classroom, saying: “These weapons were discovered in a school in Gaza a few days ago, a place meant for learning, not terror.”
Both educational facilities likely have not been active during the war.
The IDF has repeatedly accused Hamas of using civilian sites — including schools, mosques, and hospitals — for terror, and has published extensive footage showing how the terror group dug tunnels and set up weapon depots in such facilities.
The IDF has also made use of schools in Gaza as temporary encampments for troops during the war.
Planes and tanks pounded areas across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, despite the IDF having moved to purely defensive operations a day earlier.
The military was ordered to halt offensive operations in Gaza City on Saturday amid Trump’s push to bring about an end to the war in the enclave, and so shifted to defensive operations only, acting against those it deemed to pose a threat to troops.
In total, local health authorities said at least 19 people were killed across the Strip on Sunday.
Four of those killed were shot dead near an aid distribution site in the southern city of Rafah, according to Nasser Hospital. Israel’s military said it was not involved.
At least eight others were killed in multiple strikes in Gaza City, according to Shifa hospital, which received the casualties. A security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media said the strikes were against Hamas militants who were a threat to troops.
The toll could not be independently verified.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 67,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed over 22,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 471. The toll includes two police officers and three Defense Ministry civilian contractors.