Babies being born already malnourished in Gaza
Dominic Allen, a representative for the UN Population Fund Palestine, recently visited the Emirati hospital in Rafah. Conditions at the facility’s maternity ward are deeply disturbing, he said, with a stark rise in malnourished newborns and stillborn deaths.
“The doctors are reporting that they no longer see normal-sized babies,” Allen told Al Jazeera. “What they do see though tragically is more stillborn babies and more neonatal deaths.”
A baby, hospitalised due to malnutrition and dehydration, lies in an incubator at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, Gaza
Deliberate starvation and destroying the healthcare system led to this
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
Article II (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
Health system in Gaza ‘catastrophic’
Dr James Smith says Gaza’s health system collapsed in late October and it has not recovered since.
“That is because the supplies, resources, specialists and so on required have either not entered into Gaza or where such commodities or resources made available, it is impossible to work in a context of such extreme violence and insecurity,” said Smith, who used to work at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza until earlier this year.
He told Al Jazeera from London that “the hospital is barely able to cope”, adding that a colleague there sent him a recent message, in which he called the situation “catastrophic”. “They have very limited means to provide care to patients, while patients are presenting some of the most horrific trauma-related injuries and also non-trauma-related healthcare problems I have ever seen,” he said.
People, often children, show up multiple times a day with severe traumatic amputations with more than one limp and such injuries in normal circumstances require prolonged specialist care that is simply not available at the current time, Smith added.
Injured Palestinians brought at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital wait for treatment, after an Israeli attacks on al-Maghazi Refugee Camp in Deir el-Balah, Friday
‘Words can’t describe’ situation in Gaza: Doctors Without Borders
A staff member of the international medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) has described the situation in northern Gaza, including the lack of food and medical supplies.
“The current situation in Gaza is catastrophic and words can’t describe it,” MSF nurse Loay Harb said, according to a post published by the organisation on X.
Harb, one of four staff members still working for MSF in the northern part of the enclave, said people have no water, flour, electricity and – at most times – no internet or mobile connection to communicate with the world.
Humanitarian organisations, including the UN, have repeatedly warned of the risk of famine in northern Gaza, an area that has not been reached by aid in weeks. Harb said the clinic where he worked could only treat patients with severe burns and wounds with basic healthcare.
“The current situation in Gaza is catastrophic and words can’t describe it.”
In rare contact with one of our staff members in northern #Gaza, MSF nurse Loay Harb describes the situation there, including the lack of food and the medical support he provides where he can. pic.twitter.com/7QPldoFavu
— MSF International (@MSF) March 16, 2024
Humanitarian situation in Gaza is ‘beyond catastrophic’
A Palestinian baby is bottle-fed at Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital, while Gaza residents face crisis levels of hunger and soaring malnutrition, in Rafah
‘Catastrophic’ humanitarian situation in Gaza ‘deteriorates by the minute’: UNRWA
The UN Palestinian refugee agency has said the situation in Gaza is “catastrophic” and “deteriorates by the minute”. “UNRWA teams work tirelessly & in extremely challenging conditions to assist families in dire need,” the agency said on X.
It also reiterated its call for an urgent ceasefire to be implemented across the Gaza Strip.
In #Gaza, @UNRWA teams work tirelessly & in extremely challenging conditions to assist families in dire need.
The situation is catastrophic & deteriorates by the minute. Safe, unimpeded & sustained access across the #GazaStrip is needed NOW. https://t.co/qrshr02BZw
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) March 16, 2024
‘We want to eat’: Palestinian child pleads to Egyptians from atop electricity pole
A Palestinian child has been filmed pleading to Egyptian soldiers for food after climbing an electricity pole to rise above the fence at Gaza’s southern border.
“I want to die now. We want to eat, we want to live. Why … There is no food to eat my brothers. We want to eat,” he pleaded, according to a video posted by a Palestinian activist on Instagram and verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad unit.
The UN Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, earlier warned that one in three children in Gaza are malnourished and that “famine is looming.”
Families in Beit Lahiya grow vegetables to stave off hunger
Amid the rubble-strewn street of Beit Lahiya, where the local mosque lies in tatters, green shoots of recovery are giving hope to residents as they celebrate Ramadan. Resident Mahmoud Ahmad turned to growing his own vegetables in large vases placed on the doorstep of his war-battered home. “The challenge lies in the scarcity of ingredients to prepare a meal,” he told Al Jazeera. “Creativity is essential as we attempt to make the most of what we have.”
Ahmad grows eggplants and tomato and uses basic ingredients like dried thyme and flour for baking. He says he finds solace in breaking the fast with his family but misses the sound of the call to prayer that used to accompany them before the war.
A Palestinian family breaks their fast on the rubble of their house which was destroyed during Israel’s military offensive, during the holy month of Ramadan, in Beit Lahiya, on March 13
