
Burn patients face excruciating recovery as medicines dwindle under Israeli blockade of Gaza
Hamza Abu Shabab cringed in pain as his mother pulled off his shirt and eased his bandaged head back onto his pillow so she could apply ointment to his small, burned body.
The 7-year-old suffered third degree burns across his head, neck and shoulders when, frightened by an Israeli airstrike, he spilled a hot plate of rice and lentils onto himself in his family's tent in southern Gaza last month.
His recovery has been slowed by Israel's blockade, now in its third month, that bars all medicine, food, fuel and other goods from entering Gaza. His burns have gotten infected – the boy's immune system is weakened by poor nutrition and supplies of antibiotics are limited, said his mother, Iman Abu Shabab.
'Had there not been a siege or it was a different country, he would have been treated and cured of his wounds,' she said at her son's bedside in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
Israel's blockade, imposed since March 2, has forced hospitals and clinics across Gaza to stretch limited stocks of medicines even as needs increase. For burn patients, the lack of supplies is particularly excruciating.
Burns are painful and susceptible to infection, but hospitals, including Nasser are short on painkillers, anesthetics, dressings and hygiene materials, said Julie Faucon, the medical coordinator for Gaza and the occupied West Bank with Doctors Without Borders.
Burn cases are surging
Since Israel resumed bombardment across Gaza in mid-March, the number of patients with strike-related burns coming into Nasser Hospital has increased fivefold, from five a day to 20, according to Doctors Without Borders, which supports the facility. The burns are also bigger, covering up to 40% of people's bodies, Faucon said.
Some patients have died because burns impacted their airways and breathing or because they developed severe infections, she said.
While strikes are a main cause of burns, people also seek treatment for accidents, such as spilling hot liquids. That is in part due to the squalid living conditions, with hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians squeezed into tents and crowded shelters, often cooking over wood fires.
Hamza was one of more than 70 patients in Nasser Hospital's burns and orthopedic ward — as many as it could hold — with more streaming in for daily care.
His mother said Hamza has undergone nine surgeries, including four on his face. The hospital ran out of the liquid painkillers used for children, and he struggles to swallow the larger pills, she said.
Lack of food also slows recovery
In another room, 4-year-old Layan Ibrahim Sahloul sits despondently among her dolls, with second-degree burns across her face, foot and stomach. A week ago, a strike on her house in Khan Younis killed her pregnant mother and two siblings, burying her under the rubble.
Layan has difficulty moving and has become withdrawn and in a constant state of fear, said her aunt, Raga Sahloul. She also suffers from malnutrition, she said.
'I am scared it will take her months instead of weeks to heal,' said her aunt.
The number of malnourished children has swelled under Israel's ban on food to Gaza, with aid groups warning that people are starving. Without proper nutrition, patients' recovery is slowed and their bodies can't fight infection, say health professionals.
At the meeting of Netanyahu's security Cabinet this week, which decided to expand operations in Gaza, ministers were told that 'at this point there is enough food in Gaza,' without elaborating. according to two Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the meeting..
Israel says its blockade and renewed military campaign aim to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages it holds and to accede to Israel's demands that it disarm. Rights groups have said the blockade is a 'starvation policy' and a potential war crime.
The United Nations has warned that Gaza's health-care system is on the brink of collapse, overwhelmed by casualties with essential medicines running out.
Life in tents brings suffering
Doctors say they're also worried about prospects for long term care for burn patients. Many need reconstructive surgery, but few plastic surgeons remain in Gaza. Israel has increasingly rejected entry for international medical staff in recent weeks, aid workers say, though some continue to have access.
At the end of April, 10-year-old Mira al-Khazandar was severely burned on her arms and chest when a strike hit near her tent. Worried that she will have permanent scars, her mother combs pharmacies looking for ointments for her.
Mira's been able to return to the family's tent to recover, but she suffers from the sand and mosquitos there, said her mother Haneen al-Khazandar. She has to go regularly to the hospital, which risks infecting her burns and causes her pain, standing under the sun waiting for transport.
'She is slowly recovering because there is no treatment and no medicines and no food,' she said. 'She is tired, she can't sleep all night because of the pain, even after I give her medicine, it doesn't help.'
——
Associated Press writers Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip and Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut, Lebanon contributed.
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The Independent
29 minutes ago
- The Independent
Palestinians say Israeli forces fired toward crowds near Gaza aid site, killing 3
Palestinian health officials and witnesses say Israeli forces fired toward crowds making their way to a food distribution point run by an Israeli and U.S.-supported group in the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, killing three people and wounding scores. The Israeli military said it fired warning shots at people it referred to as suspects who it said had advanced toward its troops hundreds of meters (yards) from the aid site prior to its opening hours. Experts and humanitarian aid workers say Israel's blockade and 20-month military campaign have pushed Gaza to the brink of famine. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday there is 'meaningful progress' on a possible ceasefire deal which would also return some of the 55 hostages still being held in Gaza, but said it was 'too early to hope.' Foreign Minister Gideon Saar also mentioned on Tuesday that there was progress in ceasefire negotiations. Around 130 people have been killed in a number of shootings near aid sites run by the Israeli and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which are in military zones that are off-limits to independent media. The Israeli military has acknowledged firing warning shots on previous occasions at people who it says approached its forces in a suspicious manner. The foundation says there has been no violence in or around the distribution points themselves. But it has warned people to stay on designated access routes and it paused delivery last week while it held talks with the military on improving safety. 'People are killed just trying to get food' Two men and a child were killed and at least 130 were wounded on Tuesday, according to Nader Garghoun, a spokesperson for the al-Awda Hospital, which received the casualties. He said most were being treated for gunshot wounds. Witnesses told The Associated Press that Israeli forces opened fire at around 2 a.m., several hundred meters (yards) from the aid site in central Gaza. Crowds of Palestinians seeking desperately needed food often head to the sites hours before dawn, hoping to beat the crowds. Mohammed Abu Hussein, a resident of the nearby built-up Bureij refugee camp, said Israeli drones and tanks opened fire, and that he saw five people wounded by gunshots. Abed Haniyah, another witness, said Israeli forces opened fire 'indiscriminately' as thousands of people were attempting to reach the food site. 'What happens every day is humiliation," he said. "Every day, people are killed just trying to get food for their children.' The U.N. has rejected the new aid system Israel and the United States say they set up the new food distribution system to prevent Hamas from stealing humanitarian aid and using it to finance militant activities. The United Nations, which runs a longstanding system capable of delivering aid to all parts of Gaza, says there is no evidence of any systematic diversion. U.N. agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the new system, saying it violates humanitarian principles by allowing Israel to decide who receives aid and by forcing Palestinians to relocate to just three currently operational sites. The other two distribution sites are in the now mostly uninhabited southern city of Rafah, which Israel has transformed into a military zone. Israeli forces maintain an outer perimeter around all three hubs, and Palestinians must pass close to them to reach the distribution points. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken of creating a 'sterile zone' in Rafah free of Hamas and of moving the territory's entire population there. He has also said Israel will facilitate what he refers to as the voluntary emigration of much of Gaza's 2 million Palestinians to other countries — plans rejected by much of the international community, including the Palestinians, who view it as forcible expulsion. Hamas started the war with its attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, when Palestinian militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 251 hostage. They still hold 55 hostages, fewer than half of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israel's military campaign has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. It says women and children make up most of the dead, but doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed more than 20,000 militants, without providing evidence. The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population, often multiple times. ___ Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman contributed from Jerusalem. ___


Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
Palestinians' dangerous ordeal to reach aid
GAZA/CAIRO - When university professor Nizam Salama made his way to a southern Gaza aid point last week, he came under fire twice, was crushed in a desperate crowd of hungry people and finally left empty handed. Shooting first started shortly after he left his family's tent at 3 a.m. on June 3 to join crowds on the coast road heading towards the aid site in the city of Rafah run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a new U.S.-based organization working with private military contractors to deliver aid in Gaza. The second time Salama came under fire was at Alam Roundabout close to the aid delivery site, where he saw six dead bodies. Twenty-seven people were killed that day by Israeli fire on aid seekers, opens new tab, Palestinian health authorities said. Israel said its forces had shot at a group of people they viewed as a threat and the military is investigating the incident. At the aid delivery site, known as SDS 1, queues snaked through narrow cage-like fences before gates were opened to an area surrounded by sand barriers where packages of supplies were left on tables and in boxes on the ground, according to undated CCTV video distributed by GHF, reviewed by Reuters. Salama said the rush of thousands of people once the gates opened was a 'death trap.' 'Survival is for the stronger: people who are fitter and can make it earlier and can push harder to win the package,' he said. 'I felt my ribs going into each other. My chest was going into itself. My breath...I couldn't breathe. People were shouting; they couldn't breathe at all.' Reuters could not independently verify all the details of Salama's account. It matched the testimonies of two other aid seekers interviewed by Reuters, who spoke of crawling and ducking as bullets rattled overhead on their way to or from the aid distribution sites. All three witnesses said they saw dead bodies on their journeys to and from the Rafah sites. A statement from a nearby Red Cross field hospital confirmed the number of dead from the attack near the aid site on June 3. Asked about the high number of deaths since it began operations on May 26, GHF said there had been no casualties at or in the close vicinity of its site. The Israeli military didn't respond to detailed requests for comment. Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin told reporters on Sunday that Hamas was 'doing its best' to provoke troops, who 'shoot to stop the threat' in what he called a war zone in the vicinity of the aid sites. He said military investigations were underway 'to see where we were wrong.' Salama, 52, had heard enough about the new system to know it would be difficult to get aid, he said, but his five children - including two adults, two teenagers and a nine-year-old - needed food. They have been eating only lentils or pasta for months, he said, often only a single meal a day. 'I was completely against going to the aid site of the American company (GHF) because I knew and I had heard how humiliating it is to do so, but I had no choice because of the bad need to feed my family,' said the professor of education administration. In total, 127 Palestinians have been killed trying to get aid from GHF sites in almost daily shootings since distribution under the new system began two weeks ago, Gaza's health authority said on Monday. The system appears to violate core principles of humanitarian aid, said Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, a major humanitarian organisation. He compared it to the Hunger Games, the dystopian novels that set people to run and fight to the death. 'A few will be rewarded and the many will only risk their lives for nothing,' Egeland said. 'International humanitarian law has prescribed that aid in war zones should be provided by neutral intermediaries that can make sure that the most vulnerable will get the relief according to needs alone and not as part of a political or military strategy,' he said. GHF did not directly respond to a question about its neutrality, replying that it had securely delivered enough aid for more than 11 million meals in two weeks. Gaza's population is around 2.1 million people. Israel allowed limited U.N.-led aid operations to resume on May 19 after an 11-week blockade in the enclave, where experts a week earlier warned a famine looms, opens new tab. The U.N. has described the aid allowed into Gaza as 'drop in the ocean.' Separate to the U.N. operation, Israel allowed GHF to open four sites in Gaza, bypassing traditional aid groups. The GHF sites are overseen by a U.S. logistics company run by a former CIA official, opens new tab and part-owned by a Chicago-based private equity firm, opens new tab, with security provided by U.S. military veterans working for a private contractor, two sources have told Reuters. An Israeli defence official involved in humanitarian matters told Reuters GHF's distribution centres were sufficient for around 1.2 million people. Israel and the United States have urged the U.N. to work with GHF, which has seen a high churn of top personnel, opens new tab, although both countries deny funding it. Reuters has not been able to establish who provides the funding for the organisation, but reported last week that Washington was considering an Israeli request to put in $500 million, opens new tab. GHF coordinates with the Israeli army for access, the foundation said in reply to Reuters questions, adding that it was looking to open more distribution points. It has paused then resumed deliveries several times after the shooting incidents, including on Monday. Last week, it urged the Israeli army to improve civilian safety beyond the perimeter of its operations. GHF said the U.N. was failing to deliver aid, pointing to a spate of recent lootings. Israel says the U.N.'s aid deliveries have previously been hijacked by Hamas to feed their own militants. Hamas has denied stealing aid and the U.N. denies its aid operations help Hamas. The U.N., which has handled previous aid deliveries into Gaza, says it has over 400 distribution points for aid in the territory. On Monday it described an increasingly anarchic situation of looting and has called on Israel to allow more of its trucks to move safely. Salama and four neighbours set out from Mawasi, in the Khan Younis area of the southern Gaza Strip, at 3 a.m. on Tuesday for the aid site, taking two hours to reach Rafah, which is several miles away near the Egyptian border. Shooting started early in their journey. Some fire was coming from the sea, he said, consistent with other accounts of the incidents. Israel's military controls the sea around Gaza. His small group decided to press on. In the dark, the way was uneven and he repeatedly fell, he said. 'I saw people carrying wounded persons and heading back with them towards Khan Younis,' he said. By the time they reached Alam Roundabout in Rafah, about a kilometre from the site, there was a vast crowd. There was more shooting and he saw bullets hitting nearby. 'You must duck and stay on the ground,' he said, describing casualties with wounds to the head, chest and legs. He saw bodies nearby, including a woman, along with 'many' injured people, he said. Another aid seeker interviewed by Reuters, who also walked to Rafah on June 3 in the early morning, described repeated gunfire during the journey. At one point, he and everyone around him crawled for a stretch of several hundred meters, fearing being shot. He saw a body with a wound to the head about 100 meters from the aid site, he said. The Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah received a mass casualty influx of 184 patients on June 3, the majority of them injured by gunshots, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement, calling it the highest number of weapon-wounded patients the hospital had ever received in a single incident. There were 27 fatalities. 'All responsive patients said they were trying to reach an assistance distribution site,' the statement said. When Salama finally arrived at the aid point on June 3, there was nothing left. 'Everyone was standing pulling cardboard boxes from the floor that were empty,' he said. 'Unfortunately I found nothing: a very, very, very big zero.' Although the aid was gone, ever more people were arriving. 'The flood of people pushes you to the front while I was trying to go back,' he said. As he was pushed further towards where GHF guards were located, he saw them using pepper spray on the crowd, he said. GHF said it was not aware of the pepper spray incident but said its workers used non-lethal measures to protect civilians. 'I started shouting at the top of my lungs, brothers I don't want anything, I just want to leave, I just want to leave the place,' Salama said. 'I left empty-handed... I went back home depressed, sad and angry and hungry too,' he said.


Reuters
6 hours ago
- Reuters
Palestinians' dangerous ordeal to reach Israeli-approved aid
GAZA/CAIRO, June 10 (Reuters) - When university professor Nizam Salama made his way to a southern Gaza aid point last week, he came under fire twice, was crushed in a desperate crowd of hungry people and finally left empty handed. Shooting first started shortly after he left his family's tent at 3 a.m. on June 3 to join crowds on the coast road heading towards the aid site in the city of Rafah run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a new U.S.-based organization working with private military contractors to deliver aid in Gaza. The second time Salama came under fire was at Alam Roundabout close to the aid delivery site, where he saw six dead bodies. Twenty-seven people were killed that day by Israeli fire on aid seekers, Palestinian health authorities said. Israel said its forces had shot at a group of people they viewed as a threat and the military is investigating the incident. At the aid delivery site, known as SDS 1, queues snaked through narrow cage-like fences before gates were opened to an area surrounded by sand barriers where packages of supplies were left on tables and in boxes on the ground, according to undated CCTV video distributed by GHF, reviewed by Reuters. Salama said the rush of thousands of people once the gates opened was a "death trap." "Survival is for the stronger: people who are fitter and can make it earlier and can push harder to win the package," he said. "I felt my ribs going into each other. My chest was going into itself. My breath...I couldn't breathe. People were shouting; they couldn't breathe at all." Reuters could not independently verify all the details of Salama's account. It matched the testimonies of two other aid seekers interviewed by Reuters, who spoke of crawling and ducking as bullets rattled overhead on their way to or from the aid distribution sites. All three witnesses said they saw dead bodies on their journeys to and from the Rafah sites. A statement from a nearby Red Cross field hospital confirmed the number of dead from the attack near the aid site on June 3. Asked about the high number of deaths since it began operations on May 26, GHF said there had been no casualties at or in the close vicinity of its site. The Israeli military didn't respond to detailed requests for comment. Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin told reporters on Sunday that Hamas was "doing its best" to provoke troops, who "shoot to stop the threat" in what he called a war zone in the vicinity of the aid sites. He said military investigations were underway "to see where we were wrong." Salama, 52, had heard enough about the new system to know it would be difficult to get aid, he said, but his five children - including two adults, two teenagers and a nine-year-old - needed food. They have been eating only lentils or pasta for months, he said, often only a single meal a day. "I was completely against going to the aid site of the American company (GHF) because I knew and I had heard how humiliating it is to do so, but I had no choice because of the bad need to feed my family," said the professor of education administration. In total, 127 Palestinians have been killed trying to get aid from GHF sites in almost daily shootings since distribution under the new system began two weeks ago, Gaza's health authority said on Monday. The system appears to violate core principles of humanitarian aid, said Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, a major humanitarian organisation. He compared it to the Hunger Games, the dystopian novels that set people to run and fight to the death. "A few will be rewarded and the many will only risk their lives for nothing," Egeland said. "International humanitarian law has prescribed that aid in war zones should be provided by neutral intermediaries that can make sure that the most vulnerable will get the relief according to needs alone and not as part of a political or military strategy," he said. GHF did not directly respond to a question about its neutrality, replying that it had securely delivered enough aid for more than 11 million meals in two weeks. Gaza's population is around 2.1 million people. Israel allowed limited U.N.-led aid operations to resume on May 19 after an 11-week blockade in the enclave, where experts a week earlier warned a famine looms. The U.N. has described the aid allowed into Gaza as "drop in the ocean." Separate to the U.N. operation, Israel allowed GHF to open four sites in Gaza, bypassing traditional aid groups. The GHF sites are overseen by a U.S. logistics company run by a former CIA official and part-owned by a Chicago-based private equity firm, with security provided by U.S. military veterans working for a private contractor, two sources have told Reuters. An Israeli defence official involved in humanitarian matters told Reuters GHF's distribution centres were sufficient for around 1.2 million people. Israel and the United States have urged the U.N. to work with GHF, which has seen a high churn of top personnel, although both countries deny funding it. Reuters has not been able to establish who provides the funding for the organisation, but reported last week that Washington was considering an Israeli request to put in $500 million. GHF coordinates with the Israeli army for access, the foundation said in reply to Reuters questions, adding that it was looking to open more distribution points. It has paused then resumed deliveries several times after the shooting incidents, including on Monday. Last week, it urged the Israeli army to improve civilian safety beyond the perimeter of its operations. GHF said the U.N. was failing to deliver aid, pointing to a spate of recent lootings. Israel says the U.N.'s aid deliveries have previously been hijacked by Hamas to feed their own militants. Hamas has denied stealing aid and the U.N. denies its aid operations help Hamas. The U.N., which has handled previous aid deliveries into Gaza, says it has over 400 distribution points for aid in the territory. On Monday it described an increasingly anarchic situation of looting and has called on Israel to allow more of its trucks to move safely. Salama and four neighbours set out from Mawasi, in the Khan Younis area of the southern Gaza Strip, at 3 a.m. on Tuesday for the aid site, taking two hours to reach Rafah, which is several miles away near the Egyptian border. Shooting started early in their journey. Some fire was coming from the sea, he said, consistent with other accounts of the incidents. Israel's military controls the sea around Gaza. His small group decided to press on. In the dark, the way was uneven and he repeatedly fell, he said. "I saw people carrying wounded persons and heading back with them towards Khan Younis," he said. By the time they reached Alam Roundabout in Rafah, about a kilometre from the site, there was a vast crowd. There was more shooting and he saw bullets hitting nearby. "You must duck and stay on the ground," he said, describing casualties with wounds to the head, chest and legs. He saw bodies nearby, including a woman, along with "many" injured people, he said. Another aid seeker interviewed by Reuters, who also walked to Rafah on June 3 in the early morning, described repeated gunfire during the journey. At one point, he and everyone around him crawled for a stretch of several hundred meters, fearing being shot. He saw a body with a wound to the head about 100 meters from the aid site, he said. The Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah received a mass casualty influx of 184 patients on June 3, the majority of them injured by gunshots, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement, calling it the highest number of weapon-wounded patients the hospital had ever received in a single incident. There were 27 fatalities. "All responsive patients said they were trying to reach an assistance distribution site," the statement said. When Salama finally arrived at the aid point on June 3, there was nothing left. "Everyone was standing pulling cardboard boxes from the floor that were empty," he said. "Unfortunately I found nothing: a very, very, very big zero." Although the aid was gone, ever more people were arriving. "The flood of people pushes you to the front while I was trying to go back," he said. As he was pushed further towards where GHF guards were located, he saw them using pepper spray on the crowd, he said. GHF said it was not aware of the pepper spray incident but said its workers used non-lethal measures to protect civilians. "I started shouting at the top of my lungs, brothers I don't want anything, I just want to leave, I just want to leave the place," Salama said. "I left empty-handed... I went back home depressed, sad and angry and hungry too," he said.