Gaza's silent epidemic

Al Jazeera

15-03-2025

It has been two months since the ceasefire started in Gaza. Palestinians are still being killed by the Israeli army, but the relentless bombardment has stopped – at least for now. Much-needed aid that was allowed into the Strip was cut off two weeks ago.
What entered in the previous month and a half could hardly resuscitate the collapsed healthcare system in Gaza. So many hospitals and clinics have been destroyed, especially in the north, that humanitarian organisations have had to set up tents to provide basic care for hundreds of thousands of survivors. The medical supplies that came in are already running out.
Amid this continuing torment, the healthcare system in Gaza cannot even begin to recover, much less address the multiple health crises plaguing the civilian population. One of the worst among them is the shocking number of amputees that Israel's indiscriminate use of explosive weapons for 15 months has left behind.
According to the World Health Organization, as of September 2024, 22,500 people in Gaza had sustained life-altering injuries since October 7, 2023, including severe limb injuries, amputations, spinal cord trauma, traumatic brain injuries and major burns.
At the height of the genocidal war, aid agencies and medical organisations were reporting that more than 10 children were losing one or two limbs every day in Gaza. Many were undergoing the operation without anaesthesia and many of these limbs could have been saved had the healthcare system not been completely decimated. In December, the UN said Gaza has the 'highest number of child amputees per capita in the world'.
In July 2024, while on a field visit to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, I witnessed firsthand how one of the last functioning hospitals in Gaza was struggling to help those who had sustained injuries from explosive weapons. When I arrived at the hospital, there were many people injured due to several bombings.
I rushed to help as there was a severe shortage of staff. The first patient I attended to was an injured girl named Tala who was four years old. She had lost one of her legs due to the bombing and was crying and screaming intensely. Her mother, who was severely injured as well, could not come to help calm her down. I couldn't do much for the little girl except change her bandage and give her a painkiller.
Then I saw a young man named Abdallah who was seriously injured and unconscious. Upon his arrival at the hospital, the rest of his leg was amputated. His father told me that Abdallah's grandmother and one of his siblings were killed.
I returned to the hospital in December 2024, where I came across two little girls, Hanan, 3 years old, and Misk, 1 year and 8 months old, who had lost their limbs and their mother in an Israeli raid a few months earlier. Hanan had both of her feet amputated, while her sister Misk lost one of them. Their aunt, whom I spoke to, told me of the struggle to take care of them.
Misk had just learned to walk when the bombing injured her foot. Hanan was old enough to understand and notice the feet of other children her age, asking why hers were missing.
These are just a few of the stories of thousands of children whose childhood has been cut short by Israeli bombs. They are unable to run and play with their peers, suffering severe trauma in a place that cannot offer them even basic care.
Before this genocidal war, Gaza was already struggling with a large number of amputees, victims of the previous Israeli wars and assaults on peaceful demonstrations.
But there were some facilities and organisations helping them. The Hamad Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetics was able to provide amputees with prosthetics. Various initiatives provided psycho-social support and healing programmes to overcome the trauma and stigma. But all of these are now gone. Hamad Hospital was destroyed within the first few weeks of the genocidal war.
Decimated hospitals and makeshift clinics are hardly able to provide any care for chronic diseases, much less for people with disabilities. The Rafah border crossing is now closed once again and none of the injured can travel for treatment. There is an urgent need for thousands of prosthetic limbs and assistive devices such as crutches and wheelchairs, but those have not been allowed in.
With the scale of destruction that Gaza's healthcare sector has suffered, it will take years for it to be rebuilt – and that is if Israel stops blocking aid as a form of collective punishment. In this time, amputees will inevitably suffer not just from lack of care and rehabilitation but also from the deep psychological trauma that will remain unhealed. This will be Gaza's silent epidemic.