
Patients dying in Gaza amid evacuation delays, MSF warns
In May, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that Gaza's health systems were stretched beyond breaking point as a result of continued ground offensives and evacuation orders.
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The number of patients requiring medical evacuations is between 12,000 and 15,000, according to the United Nations (UN) and Red Cross, though a study in the BMJ released last week shows only 5383 have occurred.
Doctor Hani Isleem, MSF project coordinator for medical evacuations from Gaza, has urged Israeli authorities to allow for more evacuations and called for support from other nations to assist Gazan patients.
In a statement, Dr Isleem said: "We are looking for countries, we really want them to open their doors, to accept more and more cases because those patients are dying inside Gaza.
'According to the WHO, at least 12,000 patients need to be evacuated outside Gaza to access vital medical care. The medical evacuation process is very complex and it is changing according to the [military] stages in Gaza. We can divide the phases into four.
'Before the closure of the Rafah border on May 7 [2024], it was directly from Gaza to Egypt and from Egypt to a third country.
'Then during the closure of the Rafah border, it was happening through Kerem Shalom [crossing point] directly from Gaza to Israel and from Israel with two options, either to EU countries or to Jordan, and then transiting to other countries.
'During the ceasefire, those stages changed again and [medical evacuations] went through the Rafah border. And after the collapse of the ceasefire, it went again through Kerem Shalom with very limited options.'
Medical evacuation requires clearance from COGAT – the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories – a coordination body in Israel that manages governmental activities in occupied Palestinian territory.
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Dr Isleem said decisions made by the body are 'often arbitrary and opaque', with many cases denied or delayed regardless of severity.
Palestinians suffering from chronic illnesses and diseases like cancer and cardiovascular issues are amongst those requiring urgent evacuations, alongside those injured in Israeli strikes.
According to MSF, medical evacuations from Gaza remain severely limited due to overwhelming health needs, administrative barriers, and a lack of willing host countries.
Even when patients are approved to leave, accompanying family members are often denied, resulting in painful separations, Dr Isleem said in his statement, noting that these restrictions have discouraged countries that initially tried to help, with many eventually abandoning their efforts.
He continued to say that Gaza's healthcare system is overstretched, and medical evacuations are subject to strict medical and administrative criteria imposed by receiving countries. Only a few nations accept patients, and some fear being seen as supporting forced migration or taking on long-term care responsibilities.
MSF managed to evacuate just 22 patients to countries like the UAE, France, and Canada – far fewer than the thousands initially identified by the organisation.
'A clear and predictable medical evacuation system, with safe corridors and without family separations, must be urgently established while ensuring Palestinians' right to return to the Gaza Strip after treatment', Dr Isleem continued.
READ MORE: BBC breached editorial guidelines in axed Gaza documentary, review finds
'We are calling on the Israeli authorities to allow patients to leave Gaza and to be more flexible in the approval of [medical] cases.
'We are asking all the countries to be on the side of the Gazan people by allowing more and more cases to have access to their health care systems, participating in the medical evacuations and saving the lives of people."
Dr Mohammed (Abu Abed) Abu Mughaisib – the deputy medical coordinator for MSF's operations in Palestine – told The National that evacuations are moving "very slowly".
"Once every two weeks you have a medical evacuation", he said.
"Since the ceasefire was broken in March, it's been moving very slowly. The waiting list [has] thousands of people waiting to be medically evacuated."
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Glasgow Times
2 hours ago
- Glasgow Times
The latest child to starve to death in Gaza weighed less than when she was born
On a sunny street in shattered Gaza, the bundle containing Zainab Abu Halib represented the latest death from starvation after 21 months of war and Israeli restrictions on aid. The baby was taken to the paediatric department of Nasser Hospital on Friday. She was already dead. A worker at the morgue carefully removed her Mickey Mouse-printed shirt, pulling it over her sunken, open eyes. He pulled up the hems of her pants to show her knobby knees. His thumb was wider than her ankle. He could count the bones of her chest. The girl had weighed more than 3kg (6.6lbs) when she was born, her mother said. When she died, she weighed less than 2kg (4.4lbs). Palestinians pray over the body of five-month-old baby Zainab Abu Halib (Mariam Dagga/AP) A doctor said it was a case of 'severe, severe starvation'. She was wrapped in a white sheet for burial and placed on the sandy ground for prayers. The bundle was barely wider than the imam's stance. He raised his open hands and invoked Allah once more. Zainab was one of 85 children to die of malnutrition-related causes in Gaza in the past three weeks, according to the latest toll released by the territory's health ministry on Saturday. Another 42 adults died of malnutrition-related causes in the same period, it said. 'She needed a special baby formula which did not exist in Gaza,' Zainab's father, Ahmed Abu Halib, told The Associated Press as he prepared for her funeral prayers in the hospital's courtyard in the southern city of Khan Younis. Dr Ahmed al-Farah, head of the paediatric department, said the girl had needed a special type of formula that helps with babies allergic to cow's milk. He said she had not suffered from any diseases, but the lack of the formula led to chronic diarrhoea and vomiting. She was not able to swallow as her weakened immune system led to a bacterial infection and sepsis, and quickly lost more weight. Esraa Abu Halib shows to journalists a photo of her five-month-old baby, Zainab (Mariam Dagga/AP) The child's family, like many of Gaza's Palestinians, lives in a tent, displaced. Her mother, who also has suffered from malnutrition, said she breastfed the girl for only six weeks before trying to feed her formula. 'With my daughter's death, many will follow,' she said. 'Their names are on a list that no-one looks at. They are just names and numbers. We are just numbers. Our children, whom we carried for nine months and then gave birth to, have become just numbers.' Her loose robe hid her own weight loss. The arrival of children suffering from malnutrition has surged in recent weeks, Dr al-Farah said. His department, with a capacity of eight beds, has been treating about 60 cases of acute malnutrition. They have placed additional mattresses on the ground. Another malnutrition clinic, affiliated with the hospital, receives an average of 40 cases weekly, he said. 'Unless the crossings are opened and food and baby formula are allowed in for this vulnerable segment of Palestinian society, we will witness unprecedented numbers of deaths,' he warned. Doctors and aid workers in Gaza blame Israel's restrictions on the entry of aid and medical supplies. Food security experts warn of famine in the territory of more than two million people. After ending the latest ceasefire in March, Israel cut off the entry of food, medicine, fuel and other supplies completely to Gaza for two and a half months, saying it aimed to pressure Hamas to release hostages. Under international pressure, Israel slightly eased the blockade in May. Since then, it has allowed in about 4,500 trucks for the UN and other aid groups to distribute, including 2,500 tons of baby food and high-calorie special food for children, Israel's Foreign Ministry said last week. Israel says baby formula has been included, plus formula for special needs. The average of 69 trucks a day, however, is far below the 500 to 600 trucks a day the UN says are needed for Gaza. The UN says it has been unable to distribute much of the aid because hungry crowds and gangs take most of it from its arriving trucks. Separately, Israel has backed the US-registered Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which in May opened four centres distributing boxes of food supplies. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food, mostly near those new aid sites, the UN human rights office says. Much of Gaza's population now relies on aid. 'There was a shortage of everything,' the mother of Zainab said as she grieved. 'How can a girl like her recover?'


North Wales Chronicle
2 hours ago
- North Wales Chronicle
The latest child to starve to death in Gaza weighed less than when she was born
On a sunny street in shattered Gaza, the bundle containing Zainab Abu Halib represented the latest death from starvation after 21 months of war and Israeli restrictions on aid. The baby was taken to the paediatric department of Nasser Hospital on Friday. She was already dead. A worker at the morgue carefully removed her Mickey Mouse-printed shirt, pulling it over her sunken, open eyes. He pulled up the hems of her pants to show her knobby knees. His thumb was wider than her ankle. He could count the bones of her chest. The girl had weighed more than 3kg (6.6lbs) when she was born, her mother said. When she died, she weighed less than 2kg (4.4lbs). A doctor said it was a case of 'severe, severe starvation'. She was wrapped in a white sheet for burial and placed on the sandy ground for prayers. The bundle was barely wider than the imam's stance. He raised his open hands and invoked Allah once more. Zainab was one of 85 children to die of malnutrition-related causes in Gaza in the past three weeks, according to the latest toll released by the territory's health ministry on Saturday. Another 42 adults died of malnutrition-related causes in the same period, it said. 'She needed a special baby formula which did not exist in Gaza,' Zainab's father, Ahmed Abu Halib, told The Associated Press as he prepared for her funeral prayers in the hospital's courtyard in the southern city of Khan Younis. Dr Ahmed al-Farah, head of the paediatric department, said the girl had needed a special type of formula that helps with babies allergic to cow's milk. He said she had not suffered from any diseases, but the lack of the formula led to chronic diarrhoea and vomiting. She was not able to swallow as her weakened immune system led to a bacterial infection and sepsis, and quickly lost more weight. The child's family, like many of Gaza's Palestinians, lives in a tent, displaced. Her mother, who also has suffered from malnutrition, said she breastfed the girl for only six weeks before trying to feed her formula. 'With my daughter's death, many will follow,' she said. 'Their names are on a list that no-one looks at. They are just names and numbers. We are just numbers. Our children, whom we carried for nine months and then gave birth to, have become just numbers.' Her loose robe hid her own weight loss. The arrival of children suffering from malnutrition has surged in recent weeks, Dr al-Farah said. His department, with a capacity of eight beds, has been treating about 60 cases of acute malnutrition. They have placed additional mattresses on the ground. Another malnutrition clinic, affiliated with the hospital, receives an average of 40 cases weekly, he said. 'Unless the crossings are opened and food and baby formula are allowed in for this vulnerable segment of Palestinian society, we will witness unprecedented numbers of deaths,' he warned. Doctors and aid workers in Gaza blame Israel's restrictions on the entry of aid and medical supplies. Food security experts warn of famine in the territory of more than two million people. After ending the latest ceasefire in March, Israel cut off the entry of food, medicine, fuel and other supplies completely to Gaza for two and a half months, saying it aimed to pressure Hamas to release hostages. Under international pressure, Israel slightly eased the blockade in May. Since then, it has allowed in about 4,500 trucks for the UN and other aid groups to distribute, including 2,500 tons of baby food and high-calorie special food for children, Israel's Foreign Ministry said last week. Israel says baby formula has been included, plus formula for special needs. The average of 69 trucks a day, however, is far below the 500 to 600 trucks a day the UN says are needed for Gaza. The UN says it has been unable to distribute much of the aid because hungry crowds and gangs take most of it from its arriving trucks. Separately, Israel has backed the US-registered Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which in May opened four centres distributing boxes of food supplies. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food, mostly near those new aid sites, the UN human rights office says. Much of Gaza's population now relies on aid. 'There was a shortage of everything,' the mother of Zainab said as she grieved. 'How can a girl like her recover?'