M�decins Sans Frontieres (MSF) today released the ‘Palestinian Chronicles’, a report offering first-hand testimonies about the daily lives of Palestinian civilians trapped by conflict in Hebron and the Gaza Strip, and the medical personnel that service them.

Since the beginning of the second Intifada in September 2000, physician-psychologist teams from MSF have provided medical and psychological care to Palestinian civilians in Hebron and the Gaza Strip. Recently, the organization has begun a program in Jenin to help facilitate access for Palestinian medical personnel to conflict frontline areas.

The ‘Palestinian Chronicles’ are a way of bearing witness. They were written by psychologists, psychiatrists, doctors, administrators and logisticians who have participated in MSF’s missions in the Gaza Strip and Hebron since September 2000 and who recorded their experiences and observations to continue thinking, working and meeting.

They did not write about theories, techniques or, even, about emotions. Instead, they provided facts and fragments of things seen, experienced and felt. They wrote plainly and simply, without commentary, analysis or judgment. They wrote these chronicles for all readers, not just for experts or those who saw what they saw. They wrote to show with words.

The publication also contains essays describing the psychotherapeutic and medical programs run by MSF in the Palestinian territories, and is available in English at www.msf.org. The report is also availabe in French (pdf), Spanish (pdf) and Hebrew (available on September 6).

To download full report Palestinian Chronicles (pdf).