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The National
26-07-2025
- Health
- The National
Gaza's rescuers want to help the stricken but now they're 'too weak to stand'
In famished Gaza, the daily battle for survival is now shared by the very people who rush to save lives. The same rescuers who pull survivors from the rubble are fighting their own slow death from starvation, unable to find food or rest, operating on empty stomachs and pure willpower. Their patients, injured and weak, lie in makeshift hospital beds, denied even the basic nutrition their bodies need to heal. 'There is nothing in the markets. Not for civilians. Not for hospital workers. Not for ambulance officers or civil defence teams,' said Fares Afaneh, who oversees emergency and ambulance services in northern Gaza. 'Famine is hitting Gaza now with its most severe intensity,' he told The National, delivering his words with a steady urgency forged under fire and by desperation. As Gaza's health system collapses under relentless Israeli bombardment, famine has emerged as a silent killer, and its cruelty is indiscriminate. 'It's become normal now,' Mr Afaneh said. 'If no one brings us food, our medics survive their entire shifts on water. And when there is food, it's rice, if we're lucky.' Across Gaza, the connection between saviour and saved is brutally visible. It is a shared suffering, a mirror image of exhaustion, of skeletal arms and hollowed eyes, of men and women whose bodies are shutting down while duty compels them forward. More than 100 humanitarian organisations warned this week that their own colleagues in Gaza, as well as those they seek to serve, are 'wasting away' from mass hunger. News agencies AP, Reuters and AFP, as well as the BBC, said their reporters were 'increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families'. In March, Israeli troops killed 15 Palestinian emergency workers near their ambulance, in a shooting that drew international condemnation. Israel said a commander mistook them for Hamas militants due to 'poor night visibility'. Carers struggling Twenty days ago, 11-year-old Yousef Abu Shanab was playing beside his home in Gaza city when a quadcopter drone dropped a bomb near him. The explosion left shrapnel lodged in his spinal cord, paralysing the lower half of his body. Now, he lies still, not only paralysed but starving. His 20-year-old brother Wasim tries to care for him. 'He needs protein, calcium,' Wasim said. 'Anything to help his body fight, but there is nothing.' Yousef's fate is heartbreakingly common. Doctors know what he needs: surgical follow-up, rehabilitation and above all, nutrition, but Gaza offers none of these. The system designed to save him is itself on life support. Meanwhile, ambulance crews such as Mr Afaneh's risk their lives daily to reach patients like Yousef. But even these frontline stalwarts are falling. 'Three of my team members have already been hospitalised because of starvation,' Mr Afaneh said. 'They were too weak to continue. We had to give them IV fluids. How can we help others if we can't even stand?' In Al Shati Camp, 33-year-old Moamen Balha and his wife were struck by a shell while sheltering inside a tent. His injuries were serious, but survivable. What he didn't expect was how hard it would be to recover with nothing to eat. 'I need food to heal – protein, calcium, something to give me strength to walk again,' Mr Balha told The National. 'But there is nothing. This is a slow death.' The men who once would have rushed to help him – medics and emergency responders – are now in the same condition. Many are working 18-hour shifts or worse without food, without sleep, with no fuel for their ambulances and no certainty they'll make it home alive. Gaza's rescue workers are running on pure grit, and some have nothing left to give. 'It's not that they don't want to work,' Mr Afaneh said. 'It's that they physically cannot continue.' He supervises 20 officers. He says it plainly: 'I am powerless to provide what they need, even bread. We're under siege, forgotten. This is not just neglect. It's a crime.' In another part of Gaza, Osama Abdullah, 30, watches his daughter fade. She suffered a spinal fracture from an air strike and needs surgery, but the medical system cannot help her. She also needs something simpler: food. 'She cries from the pain of her injury, and from hunger,' Mr Abdullah said. 'I can't even find her bread. Her healing is impossible like this.' He dreams of getting her out of Gaza, but for now, he shares the same fate as the paramedics and the wounded across the strip: helplessness. There are no safe zones in Gaza, where hunger has not just blurred the line between rescuer and rescued, but erased it. Paramedics are collapsing before they can reach the injured. The injured are dying slowly because there is no food to power their recovery. Parents, doctors, children and civil defence workers are trapped in a cycle of suffering that deepens each day. Mr Afaneh issued a final plea, not just as a commander but as a human being: 'We hold the international community responsible. Our medics, our injured, our people, they need support, they need food, they need medicine. And they need it now.'
Days of Palestine
26-06-2025
- Health
- Days of Palestine
Fuel Crisis Paralyzes Ambulance Services in Gaza
Ambulance services and emergency rescue efforts in Gaza are on the brink of collapse as the Israeli blockade continues to choke off fuel supplies, threatening to paralyze civil defense operations amid ongoing mass casualties from airstrikes. According to Gaza's Ministry of Health, the acute fuel shortage is severely delaying the evacuation of the wounded from areas hit by Israeli bombardment and hindering the retrieval of bodies trapped beneath rubble. Dr. Fares Afaneh, head of medical services in northern Gaza, warned of a worsening health disaster. He said emergency medical services are now operating with just two functioning ambulances after most vehicles broke down due to fuel scarcity. Only six vehicles remain in service across the region—four of them borrowed—down from ten before the war. He added that the remaining diesel supply is barely enough to keep the two ambulances running. Night hours are especially dire, as nearly all movement ceases, complicating emergency responses for childbirth, chronic illnesses, and elderly patients. The pressure on the Palestinian Red Crescent has become overwhelming. Afaneh noted that the organization is now receiving more than 200 emergency calls daily—ranging from airstrike injuries to critical medical conditions. With ambulances unable to reach victims, civilians are being forced to transport the wounded and the dead using tuk-tuks and carts—a devastating reflection of the humanitarian collapse unfolding under Israel's siege and bombardment. Red Crescent spokesperson Raed Al-Nems also sounded the alarm, warning that ambulance and emergency services are facing imminent paralysis. All gasoline-powered vehicles are already out of service, and the 25 remaining diesel-powered vehicles are at risk of stopping entirely as their fuel reserves run dry. He stressed that the fuel crisis has begun to severely limit medical teams' ability to respond to emergencies, especially as Israeli strikes intensify across the Strip. Al-Nems also warned that the power generators relied upon by ambulance stations and health facilities may soon shut down, as nearly all electrical power has been cut off across Gaza. He described conditions for medics as extremely dangerous and confirmed that the Red Crescent's remaining fuel stock will last only a few more days. He called on the international community to intervene immediately to deliver fuel and prevent the total breakdown of life-saving health services. Al-Nems concluded by urging global actors to pressure Israel to comply with international humanitarian law and open safe corridors for humanitarian aid—especially fuel for ambulances and medical centers—before a large-scale health catastrophe unfolds. Since March 2, Israel has tightened its blockade on Gaza, closing all crossings and blocking the entry of humanitarian aid. More than two million Palestinians now face a worsening humanitarian crisis, marked by extreme hunger and the total collapse of vital infrastructure. Shortlink for this post:
Days of Palestine
01-06-2025
- Health
- Days of Palestine
IOF Massacre: Over 35 Killed Near Aid Distribution Point in Rafah
DaysofPal – Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed a massacre on Sunday morning, killing over 35 Palestinian civilians and injuring dozens more — including women and children — after opening fire on desperate crowds gathered near an aid distribution point in Rafah, southern Gaza. The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that 35 bodies arrived at hospitals in southern Gaza, along with approximately 50 injured civilians. Several of the wounded are in critical condition, and many remain trapped at the site of the attack with no rescue access. There are also numerous reports of individuals clinically dead still lying near the scene. Hospitals are overwhelmed. Emergency rooms, operating theaters, and intensive care units are beyond capacity due to the influx of casualties amid a severe shortage of surgical tools, anesthesia, and critical care supplies. The Ministry noted an urgent need for blood donations, but widespread anemia and malnutrition have severely limited donor availability. Eyewitnesses described scenes of chaos and horror, with Israeli military vehicles and quadcopter drones firing live ammunition directly at the civilians. The 'Medical Relief Society' in Gaza confirmed that the IOF deliberately targeted civilians with shots to the head and chest in the vicinity of the aid point. The organization stated that the death toll surpasses the hospital's ability to cope. The Civil Defense reported that many victims remain unidentified due to the severity of their injuries and burns. Victims ranged across all age groups, highlighting the indiscriminate nature of the attack. Fares Afaneh, Director of Ambulance and Medical Services in northern Gaza, accused Israeli forces of deliberately obstructing medical teams from reaching the site. 'There are not enough ambulances to handle the scale of this disaster,' he said in a press briefing, adding that Israeli forces have routinely targeted emergency vehicles, further complicating rescue efforts. In a separate incident, medical sources reported that another Palestinian was killed and several others injured by Israeli gunfire near an American aid distribution site along the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza — further evidence of systematic targeting of civilians seeking food assistance. This massacre marks yet another tragic episode in the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where starvation, displacement, and relentless military aggression continue to devastate the civilian population. Shortlink for this post:
