I’m scripting this from Nasser hospital in southern Gaza, the place I’ve simply completed working on one other severely malnourished younger teenager. A seven-month-old child lies in our paediatric intensive care unit, so tiny and malnourished that I initially mistook her for a new child. The phrase “skin and bones” doesn’t do justice to the way in which her physique has been ravaged. She is actually losing away earlier than our eyes and, regardless of our greatest efforts, we’re powerless to save lots of her. We’re witnessing deliberate hunger in Gaza proper now.
That is my third time in Gaza since December 2023 as a volunteer surgeon with Medical Support for Palestinians. I skilled mass casualty occasions and raised the alarm about malnutrition again in January 2024. However nothing has ready me for the sheer horror I’m witnessing now: the weaponisation of hunger in opposition to a whole inhabitants.
The malnutrition disaster has develop into catastrophic since my final go to. Each day I watch sufferers deteriorate and die, not from their accidents, however as a result of they’re too malnourished to outlive surgical procedure. The surgical repairs that we feature out fall to items, sufferers get horrible infections, then they die. It’s taking place repeatedly, and it’s heartbreaking to look at. 4 infants have died in the previous few weeks on this hospital – not from bombs or bullets, however from hunger.
Households and workers do their greatest to attempt to usher in what they’ll, however there merely isn’t sufficient meals accessible in Gaza. For infants, now we have nearly no child formulation. Kids are being given 10% dextrose (sugar water), which has no dietary worth, and infrequently their moms are too malnourished to breastfeed. When a world colleague tried to convey child formulation into Gaza, Israeli authorities confiscated it.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s method is twofold: block meals from getting into Gaza whereas leaving determined civilians no selection however to go to militarised distribution factors to obtain some restricted provides. Till Could, Gaza had greater than 400 assist distribution websites the place individuals might entry meals safely. Now there are simply 4 of those militarised zones within the south the place ravenous households are in fixed hazard of assault.
I’m listening to about dozens of trauma casualties flooding Gaza’s emergency departments day by day – a lot of them with gunshot wounds from these militarised distribution factors. I’ve operated on boys aged 12 to fifteen, whose family say they have been shot whereas making an attempt to get meals for his or her households. Final week a 12-year-old died on the working desk, shot by the stomach at what can solely be described as a loss of life lure for these searching for primary sustenance.
My colleagues within the emergency division have additionally reported a disturbing sample: accidents focused on particular physique elements on totally different days – heads, legs, genitals – suggesting deliberate focusing on of these physique elements.
In current days, I operated on two girls who have been shot by quadcopters whereas sheltering of their tents close to one of many areas, in accordance with the individuals who introduced them in. One was breastfeeding her baby when she was hit; the second was pregnant. Fortunately, each have survived their accidents up to now. These girls weren’t even searching for assist – they have been merely sheltering in areas which can be supposedly “safe” however uncovered to indiscriminate hearth from the IDF’s weaponised starvation equipment.
It isn’t simply the sufferers right here who’re malnourished, but additionally healthcare staff. Once I first arrived, I barely recognised colleagues I had labored with final 12 months – some had misplaced 30kg. At lunchtime, some docs and nurses head in the direction of the distribution websites, understanding they danger loss of life however having no selection in the event that they need to feed their households.
Nasser hospital is the final main functioning hospital in southern Gaza, however we’re working at breaking level, reeling from earlier assaults and overwhelmed by mass casualties, all whereas going through shortages of all the things. Netanyahu’s systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system has funnelled determined medical wants into this single facility whereas immediately focusing on healthcare staff and sufferers. Simply this week, one in all our pricey theatre nurses was killed in his tent alongside along with his three young children.
I need to be clear – what’s being carried out to Palestinians in Gaza is barbaric and completely preventable. I can’t imagine now we have come to some extent the place the world is watching because the individuals of Gaza are pressured to endure hunger and gunfire, all whereas meals and medical assist sits throughout the border simply miles away from them.
The enforced malnutrition and assaults on civilians will kill hundreds extra if not stopped instantly. Each day of inaction means extra kids will die not simply from bullets or bombs, however from starvation. A everlasting ceasefire, the free and secure stream of assist by the UN-led system, and the lifting of the blockade are wanted now – and all may be achieved with political will.
The UK authorities’s continued complicity in Israel’s atrocities is unconscionable, and I don’t need to spend one other day working on kids who’ve been shot and starved by a army our authorities helps. Historical past will decide not simply those that dedicated these crimes, however those that stood by and watched.
From inside Nasser hospital, I’m telling you: that is deliberate. That is preventable. And this should cease now.
