Nine die, 27 hospitalized from methanol poisoning in alcoholic beverages in Jordan
The affected individuals are currently receiving intensive medical treatment, including dialysis to remove the toxic substance from their bloodstream, at hospitals in Zarqa, Amman and Balqa, Director of the Technical Affairs Department at the Ministry Imad Abu Yaqeen told Petra news agency.
Most patients were in a critical condition, he said, with some requiring ventilator support in intensive care units. Methanol, a highly toxic substance, is not intended for oral consumption and is used as a solvent in paints and as a fuel additive.
Abu Yaqeen said that dialysis remained the most crucial life-saving measure, along with ventilator support. However, these interventions might be less effective if significant amounts of methanol were ingested, he added.
He said that the first cases reported over the weekend were at Zarqa Government Hospital, and the ministry is continuing to enhance preparedness in the emergency and ambulance departments to handle any new cases.
On Monday, Jordan's Public Security Directorate, or PSD, arrested several individuals suspected of producing toxic alcoholic beverages using industrial methanol.
The PSD raided a factory where suspects purchased methyl alcohol and used it to manufacture illicit alcoholic beverages, as well as a warehouse that supplied the substance to the market. Additionally, authorities seized large quantities of alcohol from stores that the factory produced.
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Arab News
17 hours ago
- Arab News
A boy in Gaza with brain damage fights for his life amid blockade
BEIRUT: It's as if the whole weight of Israel's war in Gaza has fallen on Amr Al-Hams. The 3-year-old has shrapnel in his brain from an Israeli strike on his family's tent. His pregnant mother was killed. His father is paralyzed by grief over the death of his longtime the boy is lying in a hospital bed, unable to speak, unable to move, losing weight, while doctors don't have the supplies to treat his brain damage or help in his rehabilitation after a weekslong blockade and constant out of intensive care, Amr's frail body twists in visible pain. His wide eyes dart around the room. His aunt is convinced he's looking for his mother. He can't speak, but she believes he is trying to say 'mom.''I am trying as much as I can. It is difficult,' said his aunt Nour Al-Hams, his main caregiver, sitting next to him on the bed in Khan Younis' Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza. 'What he is living through is not easy.'To reassure him, his aunt sometimes says his mother will be back soon. Other times, she tries to distract him, handing him a small war has decimated the health systemThe war began Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people captive. Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which says women and children make up most of the dead but does not specify how many were fighters or 21 months into the conflict that displaced the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people, it is nearly impossible for the critically wounded to get the care they need, doctors and aid workers health care sector has been decimated: Nearly half of the territory's 36 hospitals have been put out of service. Daily bombings and strikes overwhelm the remaining facilities, which are operating only partially. They struggle with shortages of anything from fuel, gauze and sutures to respirators or scanners that have broken down and can't be forces have raided and besieged medical facilities, claiming Hamas militants have used them as command centers. Doctors have been killed or were displaced, unable to reach hospitals because of continued military more than 2 1/2 months, Israel blocked all food, medicine and other supplies from entering Gaza, accusing Hamas of siphoning off aid to fund its military activities, though the UN said there was no systematic diversion. The population was pushed toward mid-May, Israel has allowed in a trickle of aid, including medical Health Ministry estimates that 33,000 children have been injured during the war, including 5,000 requiring long-term rehabilitation and critical care. Over 1,000 children, like Amr, are suffering from brain or spinal injuries or amputated limbs.'Gaza will be dealing with future generations of kids living with all sorts of disabilities, not just brain, but limb disabilities that are consequences of amputation that could have been prevented if the health system was not under the pressures it is under, wasn't systematically targeted and destroyed as it was,' said Tanya Hajj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care specialist who has volunteered multiple times in Gaza with international medical organizations.A fateful journey northIn April, one week before her due date, Amr's mother, Inas, persuaded her husband to visit her parents in northern Gaza. They trekked from the tent they lived in on Gaza's southern coast to the tent where her parents were having an evening meal when the strike hit. Amr's mother and her unborn baby, his grandfather and his brother and sister were was rushed to the ICU at Indonesian Hospital, the largest in northern Gaza. A scan confirmed shrapnel in his brain and reduced brain function. A breathing tube was inserted into his throat.'He is 3. Why should he bear the weight of a rocket?' his aunt father, Mohammed, was too stunned to even visit the ICU. His wife had been the love of his life since childhood, the aunt said. He barely said Amr needed advanced rehabilitation. But while he was at the hospital, Israeli forces attacked the facility — encircling its premises and causing damage to its communication towers, water supplies and one of its wards. Evacuation orders were issued for the area, and patients were transferred to Shifa Hospital in Gaza treacherous journeyBut Shifa was overwhelmed with mass casualties, and staff asked the family to take Amr south, even though no ambulances or oxygen tanks could be father and aunt had to take Amr, fresh out of ICU with the tube in his throat, in a motorized rickshaw for the 25-kilometer (15-mile) drive to Nasser was in pain, his oxygen levels dropped. He was in and out of consciousness. 'We were reading the Qur'an all along the road,' said his aunt, praying they would survive the bombings and Amr the bumpy trip without medical halfway, an ambulance arrived. Amr made it to Nasser Hospital with oxygen blood levels so low he was again admitted to to get the care he needsStill, Nasser Hospital could not provide Amr with everything he needed. Intravenous nutrients are not available, Nasser's head of pediatrics, Dr. Ahmed Al-Farra, said. The fortified milk Amr needed disappeared from the market and the hospital after weeks of Israel's blockade. He has lost about half his he came out of the ICU, Nour shared his bed with him at night and administered his medication. She grinds rice or lentils into a paste to feed him through a syringe connected to his stomach.'We have starvation in Gaza. There is nothing to eat,' said his aunt, who is a trained nurse. 'There is nothing left.'The care Amr has missed is likely to have long-term effects. Immediate care for brain injuries is critical, Hajj-Hassan said, as is follow-up physical and speech the Israeli blockade on Gaza began in March, 317 patients, including 216 children, have left the territory for medical treatment alongside nearly 500 of their companions, according to the World Health 10,000 people, including 2,500 children, await is one of the Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs in Gaza, coordinates medical evacuations after receiving requests from countries that will take the patients and security screenings. In recent weeks, over 2,000 patients and their companions have left for treatment, COGAT said, without specifying the time Ingram, spokesperson for the UN children's agency, said the only hope for many critically injured who remain in Gaza is to get out. Countries need to 'open their hearts, open their doors and open their hospitals to children who survived the unimaginable and are now languishing in pain,' she aunt reads his every move. He is unhappy with his diapers, she said. He outgrew them long ago. He was a smart kid, now he cries 'feeling sorry for himself,' said Nour. He gets seizures and needs tranquilizers to sleep.'His brain is still developing. What can they do for him? Will he be able to walk again?' Nour asked. 'So long as he is in Gaza, there is no recovery for him.'
Arab News
a day ago
- Arab News
What new research reveals about Gaza's real death toll — and why it's far higher than official figures
LONDON: Since October 2023, Israel has been waging two parallel wars in Gaza: One, to destroy Hamas and rescue its hostages; the other, a propaganda campaign designed to discredit the tally of civilian fatalities issued by the Gaza Ministry of Health. However, as new independent research suggests, far from exaggerating the number of deaths since Israel began its retaliation for the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, the Gaza Ministry of Health appears to have been significantly underestimating them. According to the latest tally from the Ministry of Health, the total number of Palestinians killed since the war began is now approaching 55,000, with a further 126,000 injured. A paper published by a team of researchers in the US, UK, Norway and Belgium, working in collaboration with the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Gaza, shows the death toll is likely far higher. As of January 5 this year, it found the total number of violent deaths over the course of the conflict had already reached 75,200. This figure, derived independently of the Ministry of Health, is based on an exhaustive household survey, which revealed another disturbing statistic about the war in Gaza. In addition to the 75,200 violent deaths, the survey highlighted a further 8,540 non-violent deaths caused by indirect factors, including disease, hunger, and loss of access to medical treatment and medication. That brings the total number of deaths resulting from the war in Gaza since October 2023 to 83,740. 'Our estimate for the number of violent deaths far exceeds the figures from the Ministry of Health,' said Michael Spagat, a professor of economics at Royal Holloway College, University of London, the lead author of the study and chairman of the board of trustees of the UK charity Every Casualty Counts. 'The implication of this is that the ministry has not been exaggerating the number of violent deaths.' • 75,200 Violent deaths resulting from the war in Gaza. • 8,540 Non-violent deaths caused by indirect factors. • 83,740 Total number of deaths since October 2023. (Source: Gaza Mortality Survey) The ministry has also been accused of falsifying the number of children killed in Israeli attacks. But 'the demographics of the ministry's figures seem to be about right,' said Spagat. 'The proportion of women, elderly, and children among the dead in its figures is consistent with what we found.' The new research estimates that 56 percent of those killed between October 2023 and January this year — 42,200 of the total 75,200 victims — were either women, children, or those aged over 65. More than half of these (22,800) were children under the age of 18, meaning that almost one in three of those killed in Gaza up to January this year was a child. The Gaza Mortality Survey, which in line with standard academic procedure received ethical pre-approval from the University of London and obtained informed consent from each respondent, was conducted between Dec. 30, 2024, and Jan. 5, 2025. Ten two-person teams from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, tracked by GPS and real-time monitoring, conducted face-to-face questionnaire-based interviews, which were recorded on tablets and phones, and uploaded data instantly to a secure central server. The survey teams visited a sample of 2,000 households, representative of prewar Gaza, and collected information about the 'vital status' of 9,729 household members and their newborn children — including whether they were alive or dead and, if dead, how they had died. The survey, said Spagat, 'would have been impossible without the support of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. 'First of all, we would not have been let into Gaza, but our partner was already there. They have experienced survey researchers in Gaza, and they were the ones who conducted the interviews. 'Also crucial was that this organization has been tracking population movements since the war began. If we were doing a survey in Gaza under stable conditions, we would have a list of where people are, based on the last census. But there has been so much displacement the census-based list was of limited value.' Instead, because it has been tracking population movements throughout the war, the PCPSR was able to identify 200 sample sites sheltering internally displaced people which reflected the distribution of pre-2023 populations, including in the now inaccessible areas of northern Gaza, Gaza City, and Rafah. As with all such research, all the numbers come with a cautionary 'confidence interval' — a margin of error that shows the possible range of figures, allowing for under- and overestimation. For the total number of violent deaths estimated by the survey, this gives a range of between 63,600 and 86,800. 'Even the lowest figure is a big number, and about 16,000 above the comparable Ministry of Health figure at the time of the survey,' said Spagat. 'We have tried to draw conclusions that we are quite confident won't get overturned by further research, and one of our conclusions is that the Ministry of Health is not capturing all of the deaths in Gaza and that there is a substantial degree of undercount there.' He added: 'Our estimate for the number of children killed (22,800) is shockingly high, and well above the Ministry of Health figure.' Taking into account the survey's confidence interval, the number of child deaths could range from a low of 16,700 to as many as 28,800. And at either end of that scale, said Spagat, 'that is an awful lot of children.' It is, he said, 'possible that the true number of total violent deaths is even below the bottom of our confidence interval, but it's extremely unlikely to be so far below it that it would overturn our conclusion that the Ministry of Health is not capturing all of the deaths.' He is anxious that the survey's conclusions should in no way be seen as a criticism of the Ministry of Health, 'which has had a lot on its plate.' In fact, although the ministry's tally is not fully comprehensive — it has, for instance, yet to compile or release figures for non-violent war-related deaths, which this survey has revealed for the first time — Spagat said its work should be highly commended. Despite the constant criticism by Israel and its supporters, the work it is doing, under extreme conditions, 'is exceptionally transparent,' he said. 'For each person they're saying is dead, they're listing a name and they're listing a national ID number, a sex, and age.' The first list of the dead was released by the ministry in October last year, in response to accusations that it was making up the numbers killed by Israel. One factor that has been widely overlooked by critics of the ministry's figures is the significance of the ID numbers. 'It's the Israelis who maintain the population register for the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, so at a minimum, they can take that list and they can check to verify that everyone listed on it is a real person,' said Spagat. 'They must have done some checking like this, and I've got to believe that if the Ministry of Health was just making up names Israel would have made that known.' Ultimately, Spagat believes, the lists being compiled by Gaza's Ministry of Health 'will serve as a memorial for the people who are killed in a way that just recording a number can't. By listing people individually, you are recording some semblance of who they were as human beings.' The model for this, he said, was the Kosovo Memory Book, an exhaustive record of all those killed, missing, or disappeared in the fighting between 1998 and 2000, compiled by the Humanitarian Law Center in Kosovo. This record, say its authors, 'calls everyone to pause in front of it, to read each name and find out who these people were and how they died. It urges people to remember people.' In time, it adds, 'when the data on the fate of those who are still missing are finally obtained … the Kosovo Memory Book will have become the most reliable witness to our recent past.' When peace finally comes to Gaza, said Spagat, 'I hope there will be funding for research on this scale (based) on the really good foundations being laid by the Ministry of Health.'
Arab News
4 days ago
- Arab News
Pakistani's Bioniks fits first prosthetic limb on Gaza child survivor Sidra
KARACHI: Pakistani health-tech Bioniks has successfully fitted its first prosthetic limb in Gaza for a young girl injured in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, the firm said on social media on Thursday, marking the start of its broader effort to support amputees in the besieged territory. The company said the fitting was made possible through its partnership with Mafaz, Bioniks' official collaborator in Jordan. The recipient, Sidra, lost her arm during the war and now becomes the first beneficiary of Bioniks' long-term humanitarian initiative aimed at war victims in Gaza. 'This marks the beginning of Bioniks' mission to support amputees in Gaza,' the company said in a statement posted to X on Thursday, adding that Sidra's journey 'reflects the resilience of so many in Gaza.' History made. Sidra, a young girl from Gaza, received her first bionic arm, fitted by Bioniks in Jordan. Manufactured in Pakistan, with the support of our clinic partner Mafaz.#Bioniks #BionicArm #Gaza #Prosthetics #HistoryMade #TechForGood #EmpoweringLives — (@Bioniksorg) July 2, 2025 Bioniks said it hopes to give survivors 'mobility, confidence, hope, dignity, and independence ... in a place where conflict has taken so much.' Bioniks did not specify how many Gaza patients it plans to support or the timeline for future fittings but said its mission will be sustained and scaled in coordination with regional partners. Founded in Karachi, Bioniks specializes in low-cost, customizable prosthetics using 3D printing and smart sensors. It has gained international recognition for its work with children and war survivors across Pakistan, and has begun expanding its outreach to conflict zones in the region. The latest war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas carried out a cross-border attack on Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages according to Israeli tallies. Israel has since been carrying out a devastating air and ground assault on Gaza, whose health ministry says the offensive has killed over 56,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and tens of thousands more have been injured. The fighting has displaced nearly 80 percent of the population and decimated the strip's already fragile health infrastructure. Aid organizations have widely reported a growing number of amputations, especially among children, due to Israeli airstrikes and the collapse of trauma care. UNICEF estimates that between 3,000 and 4,000 children in Gaza have had one or more limbs amputated. The besieged enclave is now home to more child amputees per inhabitant than anywhere else in the world. Bioniks said its goal is to reach more children and adults in Gaza with personalized prosthetic limbs and follow-up care. 'Bioniks believes that no one should be left behind when it comes to mobility and dignity,' the company said in the press release. 'Through this initiative, our goal is to reach more children and adults affected by war with customized prosthetic limbs and long-term care.' The company has previously worked with Pakistani hospitals and rehabilitation centers to provide smart prosthetics to underprivileged children and adults, often using crowd-funding and donor support to cover costs.
