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Al Arabiya
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
UN expert and trauma surgeon shed light on Gaza's deepening crisis
In this episode of Global News Today, presented by Tom Burges Watson, we examine the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We speak with UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese about the legal and human rights concerns in the occupied Palestinian territories. Albanese shares urgent insights on civilian suffering, Gaza's dire conditions, and the issue of global accountability. We also hear from a trauma surgeon who's worked inside Gaza's overstretched hospitals. The doctor shares harrowing first-hand experiences – from operating amid bombardment to the emotional weight of treating wounded children. And we cover Israeli forces intercepting a Gaza-bound aid boat carrying activists, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, who was prevented from reaching the besieged enclave. Guests: Feroze Sidhwa – Trauma surgeon who addressed the UN Security Council meeting last week on what he has seen in Gaza working as a MedGlobal volunteer in Khan Younis.
The National
29-05-2025
- Health
- The National
Gaza war unlike any conflict I've seen, says doctor
Having volunteered in war zones such as Yemen and Syria, paediatrician Dr John Kahler lists three elements that make the conflict in Gaza stand out from others. The first is the "scale and scope" of the war, meaning all of Gaza's two million-plus people are in the firing line, said Dr Kahler, who co-founded an aid group called MedGlobal, which has a team of medics on the front line. It means there is "not a single safe area" in Gaza, including for Dr Kahler's team of volunteers, he told The National. The second is what he called the "paradox between aid availability and accessibility". After an 11-week blockade by Israel, supplies began trickling back into Gaza last week – but although hundreds of lorries are lined up at the border, Palestinians remain desperate for food. Tom Fletcher, the UN's under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-ordinator, has described the volume of aid as "a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed". "There's a big step between getting it in, and getting it cooked, and getting it to the people who need it," Dr Kahler said of the aid and food being delivered. "And even if you get it in, it has to be distributed in a war zone under active fire. Now, you see it ramped up to a level of just barbaric, mass denial of aid, as well as food." The third issue, Dr Kahler emphasised, is the inability to exit or escape the enclave. "There's tens of thousands of children injured and adults injured and cancer patients that need to get out and get treated, or they're going to die," he said. Babies in grave danger Israel's attacks have showed no signs of slowing down, despite countries and international organisations cranking up the pressure for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The 19 months of conflict are long enough for children to have been born in the war zone, twice over, to mothers who have not had adequate nutrition and have been psychologically stressed throughout their pregnancies. Dr Kahler described the war as an unnatural experiment on mothers and their babies. "It's apocalyptic. It isn't post-apocalyptic, it's ongoing," he said. "Even when the bombing stops, and the gates are open, and the world turns [to] some place else, those effects are gonna be felt for years and they won't ever be attributed back to this war, but they'll be as much on this war as the kids who are amputees." More than 80,000 people are in danger of being left disabled in Gaza as a result of the war, as reported by the UN Health Cluster. However, psychological and physiological damage inflicted by the war and the mass starvation could also be long-lasting issues. For the development of a child, the "real key is in utero, when they are being carried", Dr Kahler said. Starvation at that time affects the growth of a foetus and the development of its brain, he added. There has been a severe shortage of basic necessities and even when some flour is available, consuming bread only is "dead calories" that can satiate hunger momentarily, but provide no nutritional value for the mothers or their babies, he said. With a lack of iron-rich foods during pregnancy, mothers often develop anaemia – their blood count drops, causing them to feel lethargic and have trouble taking in oxygen. In that case, iron pills would typically be prescribed but with Gaza's humanitarian crisis, mothers are left to fend for themselves and their hungry children. "Little babies don't complain, they cry," Dr Kahler said. "And so, now you got a baby crying because she's not getting fed. You got two other little kids, one is two and one is four, that are crying because they want that food – all of that adds on the psychology of the mother, which then adds to the inability to actually nurture." Gaza on the verge of famine - in pictures 'Gaza is a toxic dump' With bombs and air strikes raining over the cities, no rubbish collected for almost two years and water infrastructure destroyed, Gaza's health crisis worsens by the day. "Gaza is a toxic dump," Dr Kahler said. "I don't care whether the Israelis or Palestinians live there. It's a toxic dump, meaning there's been all of these bombs that have been dropped, all these buildings that you see blown up, all of the toxic chemicals are pulverised and then just settle into the ground. "The chemicals are carcinogenic, there's no question about that," he added. This could lead to an outbreak of thyroid disease and cancer among children and adults, creating a need for thyroid testing. "Every baby needs to have developmental testing, and you have to have a registry of all those kids that have been born since October 7," he said, referring to the Hamas attack on Israel in 2023 that triggered the war. "When the mother is stressed, the baby feels the stress," he added. While children over five years old, along with adolescents and adults, may well recover when they receive adequate nutrition, there is a real danger for babies and toddlers. "It's a generational catastrophe," he said. As for Gazan men, they are being "either jailed or killed", Dr Kahler added. "This is what ethnic cleansing is. It isn't the violence against people, it's what it does to the community, to the population at large."
Time Magazine
19-05-2025
- Health
- Time Magazine
$25 Butter and $40 Eggs: The Search for Food in Gaza
When Reham Alkahlout, a mother of four, scours the markets in Al-Nasr, Gaza, she is gripped by a gnawing anxiety spurred by rows of scarce stalls, the acrid scent of burnt wood and plastic, and a scattering of overpriced essentials—if any are available at all. Once vibrant with produce and daily bustle, markets have been hollowed out by months of siege, bombardment, and economic collapse. Since Israeli forces resumed offensive operations on March 18, the price of flour has climbed by 5,000 percent, residents say, and cooking oil by 1,200 percent. 'No one can afford to buy,' says Alkahlout, 33, a psychological counselor working at a school housing the displaced. 'Sometimes we are forced to purchase small amounts just to feed our children.' Famine, which has loomed over the enclave for much of the 19-month war, is now imminent, according to international aid groups. The groups, led by the U.N., base their assessment on a complex formula known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. The most recent report, released May 12, found the whole of Gaza qualified as an 'Emergency,' or at critical risk of famine. Some 470,000 residents (22 percent) had reached 'Catastrophe,' defined as 'starvation, death, destitution and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels.' Food prices tell the same story of scarcity. Residents of Gaza's north say a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of rice that cost $3 in February is now $10. A cucumber costs 7 times more. Baby formula has quadrupled and the price of a can of peas is up 1,000 percent. Some items, like fruit and chicken, simply cannot be obtained. Israel controls what enters the Strip, and imposed a total blockade on aid on March 2 with the collapse of a two-month ceasefire. The New York Times reported on May 13 that specialists in the Israeli military share the assessment of aid groups that starvation has become an immediate danger. ' The first symptom of hunger is pain,' says Dr. John Kahler, who worked in Gaza last year as co-founder of MedGlobal, a Chicago-based NGO that provides emergency response and health programs to vulnerable communities. 'And that pain doesn't go away. It isn't like it gets better or you forget it.' Civilians interviewed by TIME from Gaza described an increasingly desperate search for basic necessities. Alwaheidi, who resides in Sheikh Redwan near Gaza City, fears the possibility that, any day now, she may be unable to provide for her children. Nineteen months of war, triggered by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks that killed approximately 1,200 people inside Israel and took some 250 captive, has resulted in over 50,000 Palestinian deaths and the destruction of much of Gaza—including the systems that fed residents during previous wars. Collapse of Communal Kitchens Community kitchens in Gaza, once a critical safety net for thousands of families, have been decimated. The communal spaces offer a hub for volunteers to prepare and distribute free meals, but only a fraction remain operational, leaving massive gaps in emergency food provision. With cooking gas prices increasing by 2,400% and flour by over 5,600%, according to residents, the facilities can no longer prepare food at scale. 'The whole concept of community kitchens that we started during the war is almost entirely going to shut down because there are no supplies anymore,' says Juliette Touma, director of communications for UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East). 'The prices of everything have increased massively.' World Central Kitchen (WCK), a nonprofit that provides meals to communities impacted by disasters and humanitarian crises, on May 7 announced it was forced to halt cooking in Gaza. 'The borders need to open for World Central Kitchen to be able to feed people in need,' said WCK Gaza response director Wadhah Hubaishi. 'If given full access to our infrastructure, partnerships, and incoming supplies, we are capable of providing hungry families in Gaza with 500,000 meals a day.' Looting Thousands of aid trucks wait at the Gaza border, blocked by Israel, which maintains that Hamas—governing the enclave since its 2007 election win—is diverting much of the aid. 'During the war, Israel allowed humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza, and facilitated it,' said Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar in a statement. 'But Hamas stole that aid from the people and earned its money from it.' Residents say they fear looting, which tends to worsen with shortages. 'About a week ago, vegetable shops in the Al-Nasr, Al-Shati, and Sheikh Radwan areas were robbed,' says Reham Alkahlout, a mother and resident of Al-Nasr, also in Gaza's north. 'How can a family breadwinner meet the family's needs when there is no monthly income? Some people resort to theft,' she says. The Associated Press reported that both armed groups and civilians have participated in looting aid warehouses and shops in northern Gaza. Hamas has acknowledged executing individuals accused of looting and announced a 5,000-member force to combat armed criminals. UNRWA's main complex in Gaza has been targeted by looters, as have markets and community kitchens. 'We've seen individual looters. We've also seen organized crime, and we've lost quite a lot of aid that was taken by the looters,' says Touma, the spokesperson. 'At the same time, when the ceasefire started and we started seeing more aid coming in, the looting decreased significantly.' The Maternal and Child Health Crisis The impact of Gaza's food shortages falls with particular severity on pregnant women and children. Since the aid blockade began in March, 57 children have reportedly died from the effects of malnutrition, according to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Health Ministry. A malnourished mother struggles to produce nutritious breast milk. Their diets are extremely limited, consisting mainly of whatever sparse rations they can obtain, often lacking the 'very, very specific protein and micronutrients and vitamins for their children to thrive,' says Kahler of MedGlobal, which has two nutrition centers still open, supplying caloric dense food to infants to mothers. 'Most of these surviving women and children haven't had a real night's sleep in over 18 months. The accumulated effects of sleep deprivation on decision making and metabolic disease are enormous.' The same reality confronts every family. 'We go to sleep every day fearing that we will lose a member of our family,' says Alwaheidi. 'And we do not know how long we will be able to provide food for our children.'
Mint
09-05-2025
- Health
- Mint
Hunger, sickness and crime stalk Gaza under Israel's blockade
When Israel blockaded the Gaza Strip in early March, banning entry of all aid and other goods, Fady Abed, a dentist who works for a medical nonprofit there, thought it would last a few weeks at most. Months later, he can't believe how much things have fallen apart. In Gaza City, where he lives, community kitchens are closing because they have nothing left to cook. Each day, clinics run by his organization, MedGlobal, are visited by more malnourished children he described as 'skin and bones." At night, a mix of hungry men and opportunistic gangsters roam the streets looking for places to loot. In the absence of authorities, armed vigilantes chase down and beat up suspected thieves. He worries about break-ins, because he has a bag of flour in his home. 'Things can't continue like this," Abed said. 'We just won't survive." Since Israel imposed the blockade—now the longest of the war set off by Hamas's deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel—the territory is descending into a state of chaos. Residents and aid workers say they have seen a breakdown of law and order amid the perfect storm of hunger, collapsed governance and intensifying conflict since March, when a two-month cease-fire fell apart. 'I've been doing this kind of work for two decades and I've never seen anything like it," said Claire Manera, an emergency coordinator for the nonprofit Doctors Without Borders, speaking from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. At night, she hears the sounds of gunshots and men shouting outside her compound. Israel has defended the blockade, saying Hamas reroutes aid to support its operations and that the pressure is needed to convince the militant group to release the roughly two dozen hostages it still holds. It says supplies built up in Gaza during the cease-fire and it is working on a plan to distribute aid with the help of American contractors that it says would circumvent Hamas. The toll of the war in Gaza has been immense, with most of the population of more than two million displaced at least once, vast swaths of the enclave reduced to rubble, persistent shortages of medicine and daily necessities, and more than 52,000 killed, according to Palestinian authorities, who don't say how many were combatants. The return to fighting has been especially hard to bear for a population that got a brief taste of relative normalcy during the cease-fire. With no clear progress in negotiations, the fighting is set to get worse. On May 5, Israel approved plans to increase its military campaign in Gaza, piling pressure on Hamas to free the remaining hostages. Israeli officials said they plan to seize parts of the territory and stay there, laying the groundwork for a potentially long occupation that could saddle it with the responsibility for administering Gaza and providing for its population. Israel also plans to move the population south and set up hubs where private contractors will oversee aid distribution with help from the U.S. The United Nations and some 200 aid groups said they won't take part in the humanitarian plan in its current form because it violates their principle of remaining neutral. Meanwhile, conditions on the ground are worsening by the day. Residents said they are more hopeless than at any point in 19 months of war. Photos and videos shared by Gaza residents showed makeshift markets with shrinking stocks of canned food, bags of pasta and root vegetables. Flour is scarce, and what's left of it is often infested with insects, said Sally Kali, a displaced woman who lives in Gaza City. 'Many people grind up pasta and bake it into bread," she said, 'and it's delicious, given the current options." As the blockade grinds on, some restaurants and shops that had reopened during the cease-fire are shutting back down. World Central Kitchen, a charity, said Wednesday it had stopped serving meals and baking bread for Gazans after running out of supplies. Many households started cutting down on portions and eventually skipping meals altogether, with many eating just once a day. Fights over food and water are on the rise. Three aid workers said they have seen chaotic clashes at distribution points, particularly around trucks that bring clean water to population centers. Fuel shortages are worsening the water crisis, as trucks carrying water now have to limit their trips. That, in turn, is worsening a sanitation crisis that is making people sick. 'We have to make a choice," said Manera, of Doctors Without Borders. 'We can keep delivering water and reduce our medical activities, or we can keep a hospital open and stop supplying water." Gaza's medical facilities were already overwhelmed. After two months under siege, front-line medics say more children, pregnant women and lactating mothers are showing signs of malnutrition. At the same time, clinics are flooded with new casualties of the conflict, as Israeli airstrikes continue almost daily. Patients keep coming, but supplies can't be restocked. Palestinian children among destroyed buildings in Gaza City. On Wednesday, a strike near a busy restaurant in Gaza City killed more than 30 people and injured dozens more, according to Palestinian health authorities. Israel's military said it was aware of the claim of casualties during what it said was a strike against two militants. It said it used intelligence findings and precise munitions to mitigate the risk to civilians. Video footage verified by Storyful showed pools of blood next to tables and chairs knocked over by the blast. One of the most visible signs of desperation has been a surge in crime. A man in the coastal city of Al Shati said he looked on as children joined a group of looters who ransacked a local market earlier this week. 'For them, this isn't theft," he said. 'If they can provide something for their family, that's an accomplishment." During the cease-fire, Hamas-controlled police maintained a degree of order, residents and aid workers said. Israel has since broken the group's grip on public order, but hasn't replaced it, rejecting alternatives such as allowing the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority to oversee Gaza. Hamas continues to try to assert its authority, including killing alleged criminals. Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of Gaza's government media office, confirmed that Hamas has recently executed what it said were gang leaders after examining evidence against them. Gazans are angry with Israel, but a number of them have also vented frustration in rare protests against Hamas for continuing to fight from their midst and drawing fire toward them. The nighttime lawlessness is enough to keep many Gazans inside their homes after sunset, afraid of getting caught in clashes between rival gangs or accused of thievery themselves. Ahmad Masri, a resident and activist who lives in a tent in the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahia, said conditions are worse than they have ever been. 'There's no food, no clean water, not even a decent bathroom," he said. 'People are begging for flour. We've forgotten what meat tastes like." Write to Feliz Solomon at
The Hill
24-03-2025
- Health
- The Hill
Middle East latest: Egypt offers proposal to get Israel-Hamas ceasefire back on track, officials say
Officials say Egypt has introduced a new proposal to try and get the Israel-Hamas ceasefire back on track. Hamas would release five living hostages, including an American-Israeli, in return for Israel allowing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and a weekslong pause in the fighting, an Egyptian official said. Israel would also release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. A Hamas official said the group had 'responded positively' to the proposal, without elaborating. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media on the closed-door talks. Israel ended the existing ceasefire last week by launching a surprise wave of airstrikes that killed hundreds of Palestinians. That came after Hamas rejected Israeli-backed proposals to change the agreement in order to free more hostages before talks on a lasting ceasefire, which were supposed to begin in early February. Hamas has said it will only free the remaining 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal. ___ Here's the latest: US surgeon in Gaza says most patients hurt in Israeli attack on hospital had been wounded in earlier strikes An American trauma surgeon working in Gaza says most of the patients injured in an Israeli attack on the largest hospital in southern Gaza had been previously wounded when Israel resumed airstrikes last week. Californian surgeon Feroze Sidhwa, who is working with the medical charity MedGlobal, said Monday he had been in the intensive care unit at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis when an airstrike hit surgical wards on Sunday. Most of the injured had been recovering from wounds suffered in airstrikes last week when Israel resumed the war, he said. 'They were already trauma patients and now they've been traumatized for a second time,' Sidhwa, who was raised in Flint, Mich., told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Sidhwa said he had operated on a man and boy days before who died in the attack.
