Latest news with #Al-Farra
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Doctor details Gaza famine: 'We're not asking for miracles. We're asking for food'
After almost three months of a total aid blockade in Gaza and intensified attacks from Israel, children are suffering the most severe consequences, a local doctor says, from death and injuries to starvation. A senior Palestinian pediatric doctor described the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as "unbelievable," witnessing children dying from hunger and preventable injuries, scenes he said he had studied in textbooks, but never imagined seeing in real life. In an interview with ABC News this week, Dr. Ahmmed Al-Farra, head of pediatrics and maternity in Gaza's Nasser Medical Complex, said hospitals are collapsing across the region. No public hospitals are operating in the north of the strip and Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, once the largest hospital in southern Gaza, has repeatedly been targeted by Israeli airstrikes. MORE: IDF announces start of 'Operation Gideon's Chariots' Gaza ground offensive Al-Farra said that many patients have died on the operating table due to a lack of essential equipment and medication. "If a patient in North Gaza has chest pain or is injured, he will lose his life," said Al-Farra. "All the hospitals there are gone: Shifa, Kamal Adwan, the Indonesian Hospital. Destroyed or inoperable." He paints a devastating picture of life in Gaza, over 19 months into the war. "We're seeing children with marasmus -- skin and bone," he said. "Some are just 40% of their expected weight. Severe malnutrition, no protein, no vitamins." Marasmus is a form of severe malnutrition characterized by protein-energy deficiency, caused by insufficient calorie intake leading to severe fat and muscle loss, according to the National Institutes of Health. While it can occur in anyone with severe malnutrition, it usually occurs in children. Siwar Ashour, a child in Gaza, was born small, but was a relatively healthy baby six months ago, according to Al-Farra. But today, she is acutely malnourished and fighting for her life in the Nasser Hospital, the doctor said. The facility has been repeatedly bombed by Israel, including attacks on Monday. Israel Defense Forces officials say they are targeting terrorists hiding there. Siwar is bound in plastic, according to Al-Farra. The doctor says her weight loss is so severe that she can no longer regulate her own body temperature. And at 6 months old, she weighs just over 7 pounds. That is less than half the weight of an average American baby girl, according to the Centers for Disease Control. "If she does not take the suitable formula of milk, unfortunately, she will not survive," Al-Farra said. MORE: Gaza ceasefire talks have not led anywhere, Qatari PM says Nearly 500,000 people in Gaza are facing catastrophic hunger, according to a report released by 17 UN agencies and NGOs. Israeli officials have disputed the agency's figures and say their warnings have been wrong in the past. Detailing the only option that his colleagues have in hospitals to fight the severe malnutrition in children, Al-Farra said that Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, has managed to provide small amounts of emergency baby formula, known as F-75 and F-100, to treat acute malnutrition in babies. The doctor, however, said children's conditions often deteriorate again after being discharged from the hospital. "We give the children a bit of formula -- F-75, F-100 -- from MSF, just in the hospital," he explained. "They get a little better, and then we have to send them home, because we need the bed for the next child. But outside, there's no food, no milk, no protein. They come back a week later, worse than before." Al-Farra also highlighted the widespread hunger afflicting Palestinians of all ages and all walks of life in Gaza, now 11 weeks into Israel's ban on humanitarian aid entering the strip. Even as a doctor with a relatively stable income, he said he has gone without fresh meat, chicken and fish for over three months. "I haven't had any chicken or meat protein in the past three months. ... If this is my reality, imagine what it's like for the people in the streets," he said. Following repeated international warnings on the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, Israel allowed five trucks of aid to enter the territory on Monday, according to COGAT, the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. A top Israeli official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the aid trucks contained flour, baby food, medical supplies and staples for central kitchens in Gaza. Israel says they imposed the humanitarian aid blockade on March 2 to put pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages. The temporary ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas ended on March 1. The ceasefire fully collapsed on March 18 when Israel resumed military operations in Gaza. MORE: Gaza crisis 'beyond atrocious' as IDF operations intensify, UN chief says Israel on Sunday agreed to allow a 'basic' amount of food into Gaza, saying it didn't want a 'starvation crisis.' Israel allowed 100 aid trucks to enter Gaza on Tuesday, UN OCHA Deputy Spokesperson Jens Laerke said. But no aid has been distributed in Gaza yet, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said during his daily briefing from UN Headquarters in New York Tuesday. The amount of aid was described as "a drop in the ocean" by the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, UNOCHA. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the decision to allow in aid came after pressure from U.S. lawmakers. MORE: Gaza's entire population faces 'critical' levels of hunger: Report The war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorist fighters entered Israel and killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages. There are still 58 hostages held captive by Hamas, 20 of whom are presumed to be alive. Hamas is believed to be holding the bodies of four Americans. The war has taken a large toll on Palestinians, with over 53,000 killed since October 7, 2023, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. While statistics do not distinguish between military and non-military casualties, women and children make up tens of thousands of this number, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Highlighting the dire situation of the survivors of the war in Gaza, especially children, Al-Farra pleaded for immediate aid coming into the strip. "We're not asking for miracles. We're asking for food, for medicine," he said. "They are not numbers on paper -- they are human beings created by God. They have the right to survive." ABC News' Lama Hasan, Samy Zyara, Diaa Ostaz and Jordana Miller contributed to this report Doctor details Gaza famine: 'We're not asking for miracles. We're asking for food' originally appeared on
21-05-2025
- Health
Doctor details Gaza famine: 'We're not asking for miracles. We're asking for food'
After almost three months of a total aid blockade in Gaza and intensified attacks from Israel, children are suffering the most severe consequences, a local doctor says, from death and injuries to starvation. A senior Palestinian pediatric doctor described the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as "unbelievable," witnessing children dying from hunger and preventable injuries, scenes he said he had studied in textbooks, but never imagined seeing in real life. In an interview with ABC News this week, Dr. Ahmmed Al-Farra, head of pediatrics and maternity in Gaza's Nasser Medical Complex, said hospitals are collapsing across the region. No public hospitals are operating in the north of the strip and Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, once the largest hospital in southern Gaza, has repeatedly been targeted by Israeli airstrikes. Al-Farra said that many patients have died on the operating table due to a lack of essential equipment and medication. "If a patient in North Gaza has chest pain or is injured, he will lose his life," said Al-Farra. "All the hospitals there are gone: Shifa, Kamal Adwan, the Indonesian Hospital. Destroyed or inoperable." He paints a devastating picture of life in Gaza, over 19 months into the war. "We're seeing children with marasmus -- skin and bone," he said. "Some are just 40% of their expected weight. Severe malnutrition, no protein, no vitamins." Marasmus is a form of severe malnutrition characterized by protein-energy deficiency, caused by insufficient calorie intake leading to severe fat and muscle loss, according to the National Institutes of Health. While it can occur in anyone with severe malnutrition, it usually occurs in children. Siwar Ashour, a child in Gaza, was born small, but was a relatively healthy baby six months ago, according to Al-Farra. But today, she is acutely malnourished and fighting for her life in the Nasser Hospital, the doctor said. The facility has been repeatedly bombed by Israel, including attacks on Monday. Israel Defense Forces officials say they are targeting terrorists hiding there. Siwar is bound in plastic, according to Al-Farra. The doctor says her weight loss is so severe that she can no longer regulate her own body temperature. And at 6 months old, she weighs just over 7 pounds. That is less than half the weight of an average American baby girl, according to the Centers for Disease Control. "If she does not take the suitable formula of milk, unfortunately, she will not survive," Al-Farra said. Nearly 500,000 people in Gaza are facing catastrophic hunger, according to a report released by 17 UN agencies and NGOs. Israeli officials have disputed the agency's figures and say their warnings have been wrong in the past. Detailing the only option that his colleagues have in hospitals to fight the severe malnutrition in children, Al-Farra said that Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, has managed to provide small amounts of emergency baby formula, known as F-75 and F-100, to treat acute malnutrition in babies. The doctor, however, said children's conditions often deteriorate again after being discharged from the hospital. "We give the children a bit of formula -- F-75, F-100 -- from MSF, just in the hospital," he explained. "They get a little better, and then we have to send them home, because we need the bed for the next child. But outside, there's no food, no milk, no protein. They come back a week later, worse than before." Al-Farra also highlighted the widespread hunger afflicting Palestinians of all ages and all walks of life in Gaza, now 11 weeks into Israel's ban on humanitarian aid entering the strip. Even as a doctor with a relatively stable income, he said he has gone without fresh meat, chicken and fish for over three months. "I haven't had any chicken or meat protein in the past three months. ... If this is my reality, imagine what it's like for the people in the streets," he said. Following repeated international warnings on the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, Israel allowed five trucks of aid to enter the territory on Monday, according to COGAT, the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. A top Israeli official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the aid trucks contained flour, baby food, medical supplies and staples for central kitchens in Gaza. Israel says they imposed the humanitarian aid blockade on March 2 to put pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages. The temporary ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas ended on March 1. The ceasefire fully collapsed on March 18 when Israel resumed military operations in Gaza. Israel on Sunday agreed to allow a 'basic' amount of food into Gaza, saying it didn't want a 'starvation crisis.' Israel allowed 100 aid trucks to enter Gaza on Tuesday, UN OCHA Deputy Spokesperson Jens Laerke said. But no aid has been distributed in Gaza yet, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said during his daily briefing from UN Headquarters in New York Tuesday. The amount of aid was described as "a drop in the ocean" by the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, UNOCHA. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the decision to allow in aid came after pressure from U.S. lawmakers. The war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorist fighters entered Israel and killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages. There are still 58 hostages held captive by Hamas, 20 of whom are presumed to be alive. Hamas is believed to be holding the bodies of four Americans. The war has taken a large toll on Palestinians, with over 53,000 killed since October 7, 2023, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. While statistics do not distinguish between military and non-military casualties, women and children make up tens of thousands of this number, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Highlighting the dire situation of the survivors of the war in Gaza, especially children, Al-Farra pleaded for immediate aid coming into the strip. "We're not asking for miracles. We're asking for food, for medicine," he said. "They are not numbers on paper -- they are human beings created by God. They have the right to survive."
Ammon
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Ammon
Dozens killed in Gaza in series of Israeli airstrikes
Ammon News - In one of the bloodiest nights since the beginning of the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, dozens of innocent civilians, including children and women, were killed and many others injured after midnight in a series of Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip. According to medical and local sources, over 20 people were killed and more than 100 others wounded when Israeli warplanes targeted tents sheltering displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis, southern Gaza. Elsewhere in central Gaza, nine members of the Ayash family were killed and several others injured when their home the town of Al-Zawaida was bombed by Israeli warplanes. In the town of Al-Fukhari, east of Khan Younis, two civilians were killed in an Israeli strike on the Al-Farra family home. Ten more Palestinians, including women and children, were killed in northern Gaza when Israeli warplanes targeted the Maqat family residence on Al-Zarqa Street in Jabalia. The bombing campaign also caused major damage to Al-Awda Hospital in the Tel Al-Zaatar area of Jabalia, following a wave of intense airstrikes in its immediate vicinity. Heavy artillery shelling continues to pound the eastern and northern areas of Khan Younis, while repeated explosions have rocked Gaza City since the early morning hours. The ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza since October 2023 has so far resulted in at least 53,272 documented Palestinian fatalities, with over 120,673 others injured. Thousands of victims are feared trapped under rubble, inaccessible to emergency and civil defense teams due to Israeli attacks.
NBC News
04-05-2025
- Health
- NBC News
Starvation looms as Israel's total blockade on Gaza enters its third month
Gazans are fighting over the last cans of food, malnourished mothers are struggling to make milk for their thinning babies, and doctors have begun counting down the days before the slow deaths by starvation begin to happen en masse. 'Within one week, we will see a severe starvation,' Dr. Ahmad Al-Farra, head of pediatrics and obstetrics at Nasser Hospital, told NBC News. The besieged enclave is under its longest blockade of humanitarian aid since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, as Israel's total ban on the entry of all goods, including food, fuel and medical supplies, enters its third month. Despite international outrage, Israel has not only kept the gates shut for the past 63 days, but the security Cabinet is voting Sunday night to expand its offensive in Gaza. For weeks, families were surviving on very little — fewer meals and smaller spoonfuls — and each day has brought a new low of deprivation. Parents are now watching their vulnerable children starve, with warehouses now empty and community kitchens forced shut. In a place where 80% of the population relies on aid, according to the United Nations, those aid agencies no longer have much to supply. What little food is left in the markets is sold at exorbitant prices. Ossama Al-Raqab was lying in the pediatric ward of Nasser Hospital, unable to sit up properly. The 5-year-old suffers from cystic fibrosis and is so starved that he can barely lift his gaunt head. His cheeks have sunk into the hollows of his face, his ribs are protruding and his scrawny limbs are little more than bone. His facial muscles have wasted away so much, he can no longer close his mouth. 'Mommy, Mommy, I want to go back,' he whimpers, unable to speak for long. His mother, Mona Al-Raqab, sits next to him, showing a picture of her once healthy and smiling son, at a time when his diet included eggs, avocados, cashews and almonds. 'He needs food and food that contains protein and fat,' she says. 'But these things are not available now, and if they are, they are expensive.' Young Ossama is among the thousands of people already being treated for malnutrition, and for months, doctors like Al-Farra have been warning that the hunger will one day turn fatal. That warning is now a reality. 'We are talking about 57 deaths from starvation for pediatrics,' Al-Farra told NBC News, adding the cases were not only expected to rise in number, but also severity. 'We are talking about increased cases of malnutrition and anemia.' More than 52,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, local health officials say, where less than half of the remaining 59 hostages taken from southern Israel are believed to still be alive in captivity. About 1,200 were killed in Israel and 250 kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, led by Hamas, that sparked this major escalation of a decadeslong conflict. Israel imposed the current blockade on March 2 after it ended a two-month ceasefire and resumed its military operations, justifying the blockade as necessary for pressuring Hamas into releasing the hostages. Israel, which has been accused of violating international humanitarian law by using starvation as a weapon of war, has defended its blockade by saying enough aid entered the strip during the ceasefire and accused Hamas of hijacking its delivery. Those who survive malnutrition in Gaza also have to survive Israel's ongoing bombardment. But in Gaza's barely functioning health care system, even the most critical injuries are not getting treated and the simplest injuries are turning fatal without blood supply, which is also being depleted by hunger. Even when there is an available donor, Al-Farra said, 'unfortunately a lot of them already have anemia,' which disqualifies them from donation. The blockade's resumption has resulted in a sharp increase in acute malnutrition among children, according to UNICEF, which said the number of such cases doubled in March from the previous month. More than 9,000 children have been admitted or treated for acute malnutrition since the start of the year, it said. With bakeries shut, farming land destroyed or taken over by Israeli forces, and fishing restricted, 'humanitarian aid has provided the only lifeline for children, and now it is close to running out,' UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement Friday. Starvation begins with the most vulnerable, and newborns and children already suffering other conditions are especially prone. Siwar Ashour, a 5-month-old child from Al-Nuseirat refugee camp, has lost half of her weight, her mother, Najwa Aram, 23, told NBC News. 'I can't even afford milk. I beg for clothes for her,' Ashour says, crying. Ashour said her daughter first contracted intestinal flu, which worsened with the lack of clean water and food. 'Every day his condition worsens,' Al-Raqab says, looking at her son, Ossama, who was so frail he now appeared swallowed by the clothes that once fit him. 'I want him to be like a normal child, play with children and go out and finish kindergarten.'
Arab News
11-04-2025
- Arab News
Israeli air strike kills 10, including 7 children
GAZA CITY: Gaza's civil defense agency reported that a pre-dawn Israeli air strike on Friday killed 10 members of the same family, including seven children, in the southern city of Khan Younis. 'Ten people, including seven children, were brought to the hospital as martyrs following an Israeli air strike that targeted the Al-Farra family home in central Khan Younis,' agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said.
