Gaza health crisis deepens for the chronically ill as war intensifies
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[November 08, 2023]
By Henriette Chacar and Jennifer Rigby
(Reuters) - Tahreer Azzam, a nurse at Makassed Hospital in east
Jerusalem, has been caring for young, desperately-ill Palestinian
patients for 16 years.
Since the Israel-Hamas war erupted last month, she now struggles to find
them.
Usually, around 100 patients from Gaza receive care each day for complex
health needs such as treatment for rare cancers and open heart surgery,
at hospitals like Azzam’s, as well as in the occupied West Bank, Israel
and other countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
That came to a halt after Oct. 7, when gunmen from the Islamist group
Hamas broke through the Gaza border fence, killing nearly 1,400 people
inside Israel and taking some 240 hostages. Israel imposed a complete
siege on Gaza, bombarding the coastal enclave and launching a ground
offensive. More than 10,000 Palestinians, including over 4,000 children,
have been killed, according to health officials in Hamas-run Gaza.
Azzam and her colleagues have been trying to reach their patients ever
since, including checking Facebook to see whether they are still alive.
"We saw a post announcing that one of our child patients had been killed
in the strikes. He had been at the department only a week before. He was
six years old,” she told Reuters in an interview. “I can’t forget his
image.”
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The WHO is pushing for the most vulnerable among the chronically ill to
be allowed out for treatment. Other countries have offered to take in
patients, including Egypt, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Before the war, around 20,000 patients per year sought permits from
Israel to leave the Gaza Strip for healthcare, many of them requiring
repeat trips across the border. Almost a third are children. Israel
approved around 63% of these medical exit applications in 2022,
according to the WHO. Gaza's own healthcare facilities have been
stretched under a 16-year Israeli-led blockade and repeated rounds of
fighting.
“In previous wars, the crossing would close for a day or two, but then
the patients were able to return. This is the first time there is such a
comprehensive ban on movement and Gaza patients can’t make it out,” said
Osama Qadoumi, the supervisor at Makassed Hospital.
“The longer we wait, the worse some patients will get. Many people will
die merely because they have no access to treatment.”
CHRONIC CONDITIONS
The concern is not just about the most complex cases. There are 350,000
patients with chronic conditions in Gaza, including cancer and diabetes,
as well as 50,000 pregnant women, according to data from United Nations
organizations.
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![](../images/110823PIX/health28.jpg)
A Palestinian woman helps a school girl walk at the X-ray unit in
Shifa hospital in Gaza City, January 5, 2023. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu
Mustafa
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Nov/08/images/ads/current/lincolnheating_lda_PPP_2023.png) Previously, the majority could get
medical care in Gaza, but now the U.N. says the territory’s fragile
health system is close to collapse, battered by airstrikes, a surge
in the number of trauma patients, and rapidly diminishing supplies
of medicines and fuel. A trickle of aid has been allowed in, while
about 80 patients were allowed out.
“We always talk about trauma and rightly so,” said Dr Richard
Peeperkorn, WHO representative for Gaza and the West Bank, in a
press conference last month. “But we have to think about the 350,000
patients.”
Some needs are particularly acute. About 1,000 patients in Gaza need
kidney dialysis to stay alive, but 80% of the machines are in local
hospitals under evacuation orders, the WHO said. Gaza’s only cancer
hospital is no longer functioning. Israel’s military has told
civilians to evacuate northern Gaza, where some of the hospitals are
located, as it pursues a campaign to dismantle Hamas. The army says
Hamas hides its command centers under hospitals. Hamas denies this.
While the fighting rages, some 400 patients and their companions who
left Gaza for treatment before the war have been stranded in east
Jerusalem and the West Bank, the WHO said. Many struggle to contact
their relatives, with scant cellular service and electricity in
Gaza.
“I haven’t been able to tell them how the surgery went,” said Um
Taha al-Farrah, who brought her 6-year-old granddaughter Hala to
Makassed Hospital on Oct. 5 for her third spinal surgery at the
unit. Hala’s mother was denied a permit to accompany her to
hospital.
When Hala’s father rings, they manage to speak for a minute or two
before the line drops out.
“They ask ‘How is Hala?’ I say ‘Thank God’, and that’s it,” said Um
Taha.
Hala misses her parents, and her home. She holds up a drawing of an
ice cream, a rabbit and a little girl. “I love mom and dad,” reads a
speech bubble by the figure’s mouth.
“I don’t know who is left of my family. I’m sure they are not
telling me everything,” said Um Taha.
(Reporting by Henriette Chacar and Jennifer Rigby; Editing by
Michele Gershberg, James Mackenzie and Daniel Wallis)
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