Latest news with #Siwar
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
There Is Nothing 'Humanitarian' About Israel's New Gaza Aid Plan
Gaza has endured 11 weeks of a blockade so total it lacks any precedent in modern history. The world has not seen urban hunger this desperate and extreme since the siege of Leningrad ended in 1944. Eleven weeks. Bones started showing through skin. Children were whittled down to a few kilograms, to limp handfuls. Worms found the last sacks of flour before the people did. The dogs that grew fat during the first phase of the war by feeding on the uncounted dead turned haggard again. Six-month-old Siwar Ashour looked with watery eyes out from the gray pit of a man-made hell—the only world she has ever known—too young to know why her belly is distended like that, too young to understand why she has the skin of an old woman. And for 11 weeks, the elites of the Western world looked back into Siwar's eyes (if they could even be bothered doing that) and said: Yes, she too should not be allowed to live. At the moment of absolute crisis, when the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification's starvation maps were shaded completely red—the worst moment yet in 19 months of war—it appears as if Israel and the United States have finally yielded. The new plan to allow food into Gaza might look like relief, might look like a change of heart—a reluctant gesture that Siwar Ashour doesn't deserve to be punished for the accident of her birth or for the crimes made by men a full year before she was conceived. But in truth, this new 'humanitarian' regime is not benevolent, fair, or equal, nor the heartbroken sympathy of the world for a people on the very brink of annihilation. It is a new phase in that annihilation, an instrument of Israeli policy to further dominate the Palestinians of Gaza, to more tightly restrict their calories and their movement. On Tuesday, this new phase began with the Israel Defense Forces blindly shooting at several thousand starved people who refused to wait patiently for the bread that is their right, killing three. It was no accident. The new aid system is run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF. Its governance is a cloaked nexus of shell holdings, Swiss entities, escaped crooks, and U.S. military veterans—without a single Palestinian (or Arab) voice allowed to provide even nonbinding advice. Its plan is to operate four 'Secure Distribution Sites': armoured citadels defended by a private security company (another shadowy shell outfit called Safe Reach Solutions). The foundation proudly admits that each of these hubs can feed 300,000 people. But this is only half of Gaza's prewar population. Even if GHF's board promises to expand its capacity, one million Palestinians would still be starving, still without safe drinking water, still lacking even the simplest means of hygiene like toilet paper and tampons. Israel has engineered this new system so the greater mass of Gazans will be more concentrated, simpler to spy on, and easier to control. Security cameras and biometric testing are planned to screen the needy. Importantly for the greater designs of the Israeli government, large areas of the Gaza Strip can be depopulated, ripe for the 'conquest' the war cabinet approved earlier this month. And with only a handful of aid hubs to monitor, it saves the IDF the hassle of bombing each node of the old network individually, as it did when it flattened a U.N. distribution centre in Jabalia on May 9. It was, of course, empty. All the warehouses are empty. While GHF might proclaim its 'strict adherence to humanitarian principles … ensuring assistance reaches those most in need, without diversion or delay,' it is still beholden to its patron. During a hearing of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that aid would in fact be 'conditional'—only those Palestinians who promise not to return to their homes in areas declared off-limits by the IDF can be eligible. The destitute must run the gauntlet south, over the Netzarim and Morag corridors, kettled and corralled into tiny areas around the 'Secure Distribution Sites' to become utterly dependent on handouts. It also means concentrating men specifically, who are more likely to walk the long distances and then carry a heavy box all the way back. Their new homes will be hunger first 'Secure Distribution Site' proved to be anything but 'secure.' On May 27, the mass of Palestinians who came south—toward Rafah, a city that no longer exists—found a 20-acre plot of earth with sand walls, squat watchtowers, and a staff incapable of controlling a desperate population, even with the help of a labyrinth of wire fences and steel gates. The fences were busted down, the GHF's staff retreated, and the IDF picked up the slack. One Palestinian was killed and several dozen others injured in a spree of gunfire. Of course, some of the meager supplies—beans, pasta, lentils—are produced in Israel, with Hebrew branding. War is a racket, Smedley Butler once said. Someone along the chain is making a killing from killing. Who is that someone? Even before its disastrous debut, the GHF seemed to empty itself of personnel, either out of shame or embarrassment. Jacob Wood, formerly of the aid group Team Rubicon, resigned his post as executive director, saying it was 'not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to … humanitarian principles.' Nate Mook, the former CEO of World Central Kitchen, denied being a part of the GHF, even though his name appeared on early memos leaked to the press. Ex-South Carolina governor and longtime chief of the U.N.'s World Food Programme David Beasley was the foundation's best chance at appearing legitimate or impartial. His name too appeared in the briefing documents. He has wisely kept quiet. It has long been the Israeli government's desire that Gaza's economy should be utterly dependent on the largesse of their occupiers. Even before the war, 80 percent of the population needed some kind of humanitarian assistance to get by. Since 2007, according to a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable, Israel has kept the Strip 'functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis.' And since October 7, the Israeli army has deliberately wrecked four-fifths of Gaza's agricultural land, which in the best of times could only feed a third of its people. Now there will not be a country. It is extremely rare for Netanyahu to say openly what is being done to Gaza and its population. For 19 months, Israel's prime minister stayed on message—get the hostages, finish off Hamas—while deferring the bloody work of honesty to his deputies. Yet at the same Knesset committee, Netanyahu proudly admitted his true intent. 'We are demolishing more and more homes,' he said. The Palestinians 'have nowhere to return. The obvious result will be the desire of Gazans to emigrate outside the Strip.' In this sense, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and Israel's newest government agency—the Voluntary Emigration Bureau—go hand-in-hand. They are the two tracks of a single strategy, the pincers advancing toward a clear goal: to get as many Palestinians as possible to leave their homeland and never come back. Because the GHF's aid regime is a naked instrument of Israeli policy, the U.N.'s relief agencies and other charities have unanimously rejected taking part in it. Their reasons are sound. Publicly they condemn any plan, as U.N. Secretary General António Guterres put it, that would risk 'further controlling and callously limiting aid down to the last calorie and grain of flour.' Privately they fear becoming complicit in a vast crime. Indeed, the worst crime of our age. 'The model of total control over aid delivery and distribution exercised by a party to the conflict,' a U.N. discussion memo says, 'would become a standard that other Member States may seek to replicate.' Israel is setting a standard, a precedent. The methods of annihilation trialed here can be trialed elsewhere—will be trialed elsewhere. Anyone refusing to oblige or consent now is doing a favor to the future. Take the long view. Look from above. What do we see? Not just a nation being dismantled, piece by gory piece. Not just the Israeli government's shameless perpetration of nearly every one of the gravest crimes humanity has written. We see exactly the techniques a sadist might use to make their captive helpless and pliable. The unrelenting airstrikes. The unceasing demolition of homes and farmland. The unnerving assassinations of journalists and aid workers. Above all, the use of hunger as a weapon of coercion. There is a word for what Israel is doing: torture—the torture of an entire society in the hope it might flee its torment or perish in the trying. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation cannot rescue the Palestinians. It is one more tool in a suite of destruction.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
'Situation is dire' - BBC returns to Gaza baby left hungry by Israeli blockade
There is no excitement as the camera passes. The children barely glance. What can surprise a child who lives among the dead, the dying, the waiting to die? Hunger has worn them down. They wait in queues for scant rations or for none at all. They have grown used to my colleague and his camera, filming for the BBC. He witnesses their hunger, their dying, and to the gentle wrapping of their bodies - or fragments of their bodies - in white shrouds upon which their names, if known, are written. For 19 months of war, and now under a renewed Israeli offensive, this local cameraman - who I do not name, for his safety - has listened to the anguished cries of the survivors in hospital courtyards. His physical distance is respectful, but they are on his mind, day and night. He is one of them, trapped in the same claustrophobic hell. This morning he is setting out to find Siwar Ashour, a five-month-old girl whose emaciated frame and exhausted cry at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis affected him so much, when he was filming there earlier this month, that he wrote to tell me something had broken inside him. She weighed just over 2kg (4lb 6oz). A baby girl of five months should be about 6kg or over. Siwar has since been discharged and is now at home, my colleague has heard. That is what brings him to the street of pulverised houses and makeshift shelters of canvas and corrugated iron. He conducts his search in difficult circumstances. A few days ago I messaged to ask how he was doing. "I am not okay," he replied. "Just a short while ago, the Israeli army announced the evacuation of most areas of Khan Younis… We don't know what to do - there is no safe place to go. "Al-Mawasi is extremely overcrowded with displaced people. We are lost and have no idea what the right decision is at this moment." He finds a one-bedroom shack, the entrance formed of a floral patterned, grey and black curtain. Inside there are three mattresses, part of a chest of drawers, and a mirror which reflects sunlight across the floor in front of Siwar, her mother Najwa and her grandmother, Reem. Siwar is quiet, held secure by the protective presence of the two women. The baby cannot absorb regular milk formula because of a severe allergic reaction. Under the conditions of war and an Israeli blockade on aid arrivals, there is a severe shortage of the formula she needs. Najwa, 23, explains that her condition stabilised when she was in Nasser hospital, so doctors discharged her with a can of baby formula several days ago. Now at home, she says the baby's weight has started to slip again. "The doctors told me that Siwar improved and is better than before, but I think that she is still skinny and hasn't improved much. They found her only one can of milk, and it [has] started running out." Flies dance in front of Siwar's face. "The situation is very dire," says Najwa, "the insects come at her, I have to cover her with a scarf so nothing touches her". Siwar has lived with the sound of war since last November when she was born. The artillery, the rockets, falling bombs - distant and near. The gunfire, the blades of Israeli drones whirring overhead. Najwa explains: "She understands these things. The sound of the tanks, warplanes, and rockets are so loud and they are close to us. When Siwar hears these sounds, she gets startled and cries. If she is sleeping, she wakes up startled and crying." Doctors in Gaza say many young mothers report being unable to breastfeed their babies due to lack of nutrition. The pressing problem is food and clean water. Najwa was malnourished herself when Siwar was born. She and her mother Reem still find it difficult to get anything to eat themselves. It is the struggle of every waking hour. "In our case, we can't provide milk or diapers because of the prices and the border closure." On 22 May Israeli military body Cogat said there was no food shortage in Gaza. It said "significant quantities of baby food and flour for bakeries" had been brought into the enclave in recent days. The agency has repeatedly insisted that Hamas steals aid, while the Israeli government says the war will continue until Hamas is destroyed and the Israeli hostages held in Gaza are released. According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 20 hostages seized by Hamas in the 7 October 2023 attacks are believed to be alive and up to 30 others dead. Aid agencies, the United Nations and many foreign governments, including Britain, reject Cogat's comment that there is no food shortage. US President Donald Trump has also spoken of people "starving" in Gaza. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres described the amount of aid Israel has allowed into Gaza as "a teaspoon". He said Palestinians were "enduring what may be the cruellest phase of this cruel conflict" with restricted supplies of fuel, shelter, cooking gas and water purification supplies. According to the UN 80% of Gaza is now either designated as an Israeli militarised zone or a place where people have been ordered to leave. The denials, the expressions of concern, the condemnations and the moments which seemed like turning points have come and gone throughout this war. The sole constant is the suffering of Gaza's 2.1 million people, like Najwa and her daughter Siwar. "One does not think about the future or the past," Najwa says. There is only the present moment and how to survive it. With additional reporting by Malak Hassouneh, Alice Doyard and Nik Millard. 'No food when I gave birth': Malnutrition rises in Gaza as Israeli blockade enters third month Chaos spreads as desperate Gazans wait for food to arrive Israeli strike kills nine of Gaza doctor's children
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Yahoo
BBC cameraman haunted by Gaza's malnourished children captures Israeli strike on hospital
The war's horrors multiply. The dead, the pieces of the dead. The dying. The starving. More and more of them now – all the weight of human suffering witnessed by my brave colleagues in Gaza. The urge to avert our gaze can be overpowering. But the cameramen who work for the BBC cannot turn away, and on Tuesday one of them became a casualty himself. For their safety we do not reveal the names of our colleagues in Gaza. Our cameraman was not seriously wounded, but that was a matter of luck. The Israeli bombs launched into the car park of the European Hospital in Khan Younis killed and wounded dozens. The Israelis say the leader of Hamas was hiding in a command-and-control compound under the hospital. The army said it conducted a "precise strike" - and blamed Hamas for"cynically and cruelly exploiting the civilian population in and around the hospital". Hamas denies such charges. At the time of the attack, families whose sick children are to be evacuated from Gaza were gathering in the hospital. There were also families waiting to meet children returning from treatment abroad. One of the fathers was with our BBC colleague and was wounded by the bombs. He has now been discharged from hospital. Harrowing images show our journalist trying to console the man's terrified children. Warning: This report contains distressing images. Much of my colleague's work in recent days has focused on the plight of malnourished children. A short time before the blast, I messaged to thank him for his work filming, with immense sensitivity, the story of Siwar Ashour. This was his response: "Siwar's story broke something in all of us, and working on it was one of the most painful things I've ever had to do. But I knew her face, her name, and her story had to be seen – had to be heard." Siwar is five months old and acutely malnourished, a child whose large, brown eyes dominate her shrunken frame. They follow her mother Najwa's every move. On Tuesday Najwa sent us a video message from her room at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza. She wanted the world to know how much she loves her child. "I wish she could receive the treatment she needs, to recover fully, and return as she was before – to play like other children, to grow and gain weight like other children. She is my first child, and as her mother, I'm deeply heartbroken for her." In the past few days Siwar has developed a skin infection. Sores have appeared on her hands. She also has a severe gastrointestinal condition. The battle is to keep nourishment inside her. Her immune system is fighting the deprivation caused by the Israeli blockade. The baby's cry is weak, yet it is full of urgency, the sound of a life struggling for its survival. Siwar can only drink a special milk formula due to severe allergies. On Tuesday there was some better news. Medics at the nearby Jordanian Field Hospital managed to find some of the formula she needs. It is a small amount but they plan to send more. In the coming days there are plans to bring sick children to the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Here in Amman there are already several Gaza families who have children being treated for illness or war injuries in local hospitals. These evacuations are co-ordinated with the Israelis who do background checks on the parents travelling with their children. In January we filmed the arrival of Abdelrahman al-Nashash and his mum Asma. Abdelrahman lost his leg in an Israeli bombing. For four months they've lived in a place with food and shelter. A safe place. When we visited them on Tuesday Asma called her children and their grandmother in Gaza. Grandmother Najwa spoke of the war all around them. "The rockets are everywhere, firing over our heads. The food. Life is very bad. There is no flour. The prices are very high." The children waved and blew kisses to their mother. Afterwards, Asma told us: "I don't know what to say. I am very grateful for my mum for all she is doing for me. I wish I can return back to find them safe and in good health." She broke down and was silent. It is only through the eyes of a mother who sees her children trapped, frightened and hungry from a safe distance, that it is possible to imagine why anyone would want to go back to Gaza. With additional reporting by Alice Doyard, Suha Kawar and Nik Millard. Israel denying food to Gaza is 'weapon of war', UN Palestinian refugee agency head tells BBC Gaza parents desperate as children face starvation under Israeli blockade Entire Gaza population at critical risk of famine, UN-backed assessment says
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
A picture that shocked the world: the story behind baby Siwar Ashour
Siwar Ashour was born into war and hunger and has known nothing else. She is now in real danger of dying without ever having known a moment of peace or contentment. The six-month-old Palestinian girl, whose painfully emaciated body symbolised the deliberate starvation of Gaza when she appeared on the BBC this week, was only 2.5kg when she was born on 20 November last year. From birth, Siwar had a problem with her oesophagus that has made it hard for her to drink breast milk and left her dependent on specialised formula, which is in critically short supply. Her parents' home in al-Nuseirat, halfway up the coast on the Gaza Strip, was bombed earlier in the war, which began in October 2023 when Hamas killed 1,200 people in Israel, leading to an Israeli assault that has so far killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza. They lived in tents for a while but it was almost impossible to get food or water in the camp and it also came under Israeli fire. They tried going back to al-Nuseirat to stay at Siwar's grandparents' home, but that was bombed, too. All that was left of the building was a single room, which they shared with 11 other people. That was where Siwar was born. 'I was exhausted all the time. There was no privacy, and I couldn't get any rest,' said Najwa Aram, Siwar's 23-year-old mother. 'There was no food or proper nutrition, and when I gave birth to her, she was not like other babies.' 'When she was born, she was beautiful despite the weakness visible on her features,' she said. 'But now she is unnaturally thin. Babies her age are supposed to weigh 6kg or more – not just 2-4kg.' Najwa found out last month she was pregnant with her second child, but lives in terror of losing Siwar before her brother or sister is born. She has moved to Khan Younis to stay with her mother, but has spent most of the past few months in hospital with her frail daughter. Her husband, Saleh, is blind, and had to stay behind in al-Nuseirat. The relentless bombing has forced the family to move several times, like almost all families in Gaza, and has torn them apart. 'Even though Siwar's father is blind, he used to play with her a lot. He visited us in the hospital only once, as he cannot move without someone accompanying him,' Najwa said. 'He fears for her even more than I do – he is deeply attached to her.' The family has no source of income so relies on charity kitchens for food and some humanitarian aid, but that too is in desperately short supply as Israel's total blockade of Gaza approaches the 70-day mark. Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN relief agency, Unrwa, said this week: 'the manmade and politically motivated starvation in Gaza is an expression of absolute cruelty'. Najwa and her mother have a single sack of flour left, as well as a few tins. 'Once this runs out, we won't be able to buy anything due to the high prices,' Najwa said. Even more critically, supplies of the special milk formula that Siwar needs are harder and harder to find. 'I am also suffering from malnutrition. Still, I try to breastfeed Siwar, but she refuses and continues to cry, completely rejecting me,' Najwa said. 'That's why I've had to rely more on formula milk. When I used to breastfeed her, one can of formula would last a month. Now it runs out in less than a week.' Najwa and her daughter spent much of March in hospital in Deir al-Balah, where there was a milk formula that seemed to work, bringing Siwar's weight up to 4kg. 'I noticed that Siwar started to smile and play, which made me happy and gave me hope that her health might improve.' But that fragile moment of hope crumbled when they were discharged, and Siwar started losing weight again. She was referred to Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, where mother and daughter remain, for now. 'The doctors are doing everything they can to take care of her, but she also doesn't tolerate the formula they prepare for her,' Najwa said. 'The hospital situation is bad. There are six patients in each room. Everywhere you look, there is suffering. There's a child in worse condition than Siwar.' 'Seeing my daughter in this state every day gives me insomnia,' she said. 'I'm constantly anxious and overthinking. Sometimes I can't bear seeing her like this, and I start crying. I'm so afraid of losing her. Can't the world open the crossings to allow in milk, food, and medicine. All I want is for my daughter Siwar to live like the rest of the children in the world.' Dr Ahmed al-Farah, the director of the children's and maternity building at the Nasser medical complex, said between five and 10 new malnutrition cases are being recorded there every day. 'We're seeing severe cases. Malnutrition appears in children in a horrifying and extremely visible way,' Farah said. 'We have nothing to offer them. They need proteins, but there are none. We try to provide a little milk, perhaps powdered milk, but we can't offer anything more. 'On top of that, the severe overcrowding in hospitals leads to increased disease transmission among children,' he added. There is only enough fuel left at the Nasser complex to keep the generators going for another 48 hours. They have already had to shut off electricity on the administrative floors to make it last a little bit longer, but the power supply will soon have to be cut to the overcrowded patients' wards. 'We are helpless in the face of their needs – we cannot provide food, supplements, medication, or vitamins appropriate for their conditions,' the doctor said. 'I studied malnutrition in medical school textbooks. I used to think that study would remain theoretical, something we'd never see in real life. But now, those textbook descriptions have come to life before our eyes in Gaza,' Farah said. 'I call on the world to see us as human beings – we were created just like everyone else.'
10-05-2025
- Health
Malnourished children, hospital supplies running low: Impact of 2 months of no aid in Gaza
Israel's decision to halt all humanitarian aid from crossing into Gaza is entering its third month. The Israeli government said the blockade is to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, including the remains of those who have died, and to accept a new proposal to extend phase one of the ceasefire deal, which ended on March 18. Israel's Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) wrote in a post on X in late April that humanitarian personnel have been allowed to enter and exit Gaza to support humanitarian efforts in the strip. But multiple doctors and international aid workers told ABC News that water, food, medicine and medical supplies are running low, and in some cases running out completely. Children are becoming malnourished, diseases are at risk of spreading and those who are injured cannot be treated properly, the workers said. "If nothing is done, if food is not brought in, if water is not brought in, if vaccines are not brought in at scale -- we're already in a catastrophe, and we're going to have way more children dying [from] preventable causes," Jonathan Crickx, chief of communication for UNICEF Palestine, told ABC News. A Trump administration official told ABC News there is a no-yet-finalized plan to administer the delivery of humanitarian aid in Gaza, starting with fewer than half a dozen distribution sites set up throughout the enclave. The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately return ABC News' request for comment. Children becoming malnourished The lack of food entering Gaza is one of the most severe problems the strip is facing, according to aid workers. Osama As, the lead for quality, evidence and learning with the Mercy Corps Gaza Emergency Response Program, said the situation "is getting worse day after day, especially in relation to food" because most people in Gaza depend on humanitarian aid and community kitchens for food. He said most families survive on one meal a day, and that most food available is canned food and bread. "I never imagined that we would reach this point. Most people cannot afford the remaining items, which are either like canned foods and few quantities of vegetables which are produced locally here in Gaza," As, who is based in Gaza, said. "The prices are very high, so I think most people cannot afford these kinds of items to buy from the local market." Dr. Ahmed Alfar, head of the pediatrics department at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, said he has seen many examples of malnourished children over the past two months. One example he gave is a baby girl named Siwar, who was born four months ago. At birth, she weighed 2.5 kilograms, or 5.5 pounds. Four months later, she should be weighing about 5 kilograms, or 11 pounds. Instead, she is only about 6 pounds, according to Alfar. Alfar said the mother is unable to lactate and the family does not have much money, so they have been unable to feed Siwar milk, just sweetened water. "That means in four months she gained just 200 grams, and this is unbelievable," he told ABC News in Arabic. "She was a full-term baby. She was delivered vaginally. Her health was completely normal. ... We called it one of the most severe [cases of] malnutrition. Now Siwar is facing a severe, critical situation." Similarly, Crickx, from UNICEF Palestine, who is currently in Al Mawasi, in southern Gaza, said he visited Nasser Hospital this week and met a 4-year-old boy named Osama. Crickx said Osama should weigh 15 to 16 kilograms, about 33 to 35 pounds. Instead, he weighs 8 kilograms, or 17.5 pounds, Crickx said. He said UNICEF and its partners have a small number of ready-to-use therapeutic foods to treat malnutrition, but they are running out. UNICEF has already run out of food meant to address the first signs of malnutrition. "[Osama] has, really, the skin on the bones, and he was healthy before the beginning of this terrible war," Crickx said. "So, we are now in a situation where children are hungry, they are little by little being affected more and more by acute malnutrition, acute severe malnutrition. And if nothing is done, we fear that the worst will happen to them." Community kitchen workers told ABC News if the border crossings remain closed, markets will close, and ingredients will run out. Some food relief organizations have already closed. In late April, the United Nations' World Food Programme said it had delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meal kitchens in Gaza, and it expected to fully run out of food in the coming days. Additionally, the nonprofit group World Central Kitchen (WCK) announced on Wednesday that it had run out of supplies and ingredients needed to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza. WCK said it has trucks loaded with food and cooking fuel that have been ready to enter Gaza since early March as well as additional food and equipment ready to be shipped from Jordan and Egypt. "In recent weeks, our teams stretched every remaining ingredient and fuel source using creativity and determination. We turned to alternative fuels like wood pallets and olive husk pellets and pivoted away from rice recipes that require more fuel in favor of stews with bread," WCK said. "But we have now reached the limits of what is possible." Risk of spreading disease The blockade has also had an impact on the spread of disease in Gaza, aid workers said. Overcrowding in tent camps -- along with a lack of clean water, hygiene products and poor sanitation -- puts Gazans at risk of contracting infectious diseases, they said. Limited supplies of soap and hygienic products "will continue to lead to escalation in skin manifestations of diseases like scabies," Dr. Aqsa Durrani, a pediatrician who was recently on assignment in Gaza with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, told ABC News. It's unclear how many infections have been diagnosed over the past two months but a study from April 2024 estimated 55,400 cases of scabies and lice outbreaks among children under age five who were displaced. Limited clean drinking water and overcrowded camps has also led to a rise in diarrheal diseases. A report from the Institute for Palestine Studies estimates at least half of cases recorded as of Jan. 2024 have been among children under 5 years old. Crickx said a majority of children are affected by chronic watery diarrhea, which can lead to serious complications for babies and toddlers. There has also been a rise in vaccine-preventable diseases in Gaza including hepatitis A, chickenpox, measles and polio. Aid workers say the blockade imposed by Israel has halted the delivery of vaccines, such as the oral polio vaccine to Gaza, leaving residents vulnerable to diseases. "Even in these terrible conditions, we have pregnant women and babies still being born in this community and population of 2 million people," Durrani said. "And so, we need more vaccinations as well vaccines." Hospitals running out of supplies to treat injured Since Hamas launched its surprise terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel responded by declaring war, thousands have reportedly been killed or injured. Israel has said its goal is to destroy Hamas and that it attempts to minimize civilian casualties as often as possible. More than 15 months into the conflict, Hamas and Israel reached a ceasefire deal. The ceasefire saw the withdrawal of some Israeli forces to allow more aid to get in and the release of some of the hostages. However, resumption of hostilities in mid-March led to an increase in injuries, Crickx said. UNICEF estimates that more than 500 children have been killed since March 18 and more than 1.250 children have been injured. Durrani -- who worked as medical activity manager for MSF at a field hospital in Deir al Balah in central Gaza from the end of February until the end of April -- said she saw injuries caused by air strikes, fires after air strikes and from large cooking fires. "Because there's no cooking gas, people are burning household items and trying to cook over large open flames,' she said. "So, we also saw children with burns due to those flames, as well as scald burns from children who had been waiting in food distribution lines, and the jostling of the food items would then lead to them being injured from hot food." What's more, burn victims or those who are injured can take longer to heal due to malnourishment. They can also be at risk of infections or skin graft failure. Durrani explained that poor wound healing can be associated with poor nutrition, which resulted in some pediatric burn patients developing infections. "Not only was our staff hungry, but we also had no food for our patients, including our pediatric patients," Durrani said. "Other than just being harrowing from a human perspective, it's also, from a medical perspective, really impacts the way that people can heal from these injuries, and these types of burns." "Not even being clear that we will have enough antibiotics to treat the infection if the patients develop infections," she continued. "In the face of also not having enough surgical materials or concern that we may run critically low on anesthesia supplies if they need to go back to the [operating room]." In conversations with doctors this week, Crickx said hospitals are experiencing shortages of anesthetics and anticoagulants. There is also a lack of medical supplies to fix bones when they suffer fractures, he said. Durrani said her team was forced to ration medications, including painkillers, antibiotics and critical surgery supplies. They often had to perform painful procedures and wound dressing changes without any pain control. She said she didn't want to cause pain by removing dressings without proper pain control, but if the dressings aren't removed, then it could lead to infections for patients. "We're being forced to make impossible decisions like that, which is unconscionable, given that just miles away there are trucks and trucks full of food and supplies and medications and nutritional sources," she said. "For me personally, this is the first time that I had to look patients in the eye and say I didn't have something that I know is just miles away."
