Tahrir Azzam, a nurse at Al-Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem, has been caring for young Palestinians with serious illnesses for 16 years.
Since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas last month, Tahrir has found it difficult to find patients.
The World Health Organization says that about 100 patients from Gaza usually receive care daily to meet complex health needs, such as treatment for rare cancers and open-heart surgeries, in hospitals like the one Tahrir operates in, in the West Bank, Israel and other countries as well.
This stopped after October 7, when Hamas fighters breached the Gaza border fence, killing about 1,400 people inside Israel and taking about 240 hostage.
Israel responded by imposing a complete siege on the Gaza Strip, bombing it, and invading it by land.
Gaza health officials say more than 10,000 Palestinians, including more than 4,000 children, have been killed.
Tahrir and her colleagues have been trying to reach their patients ever since, including by searching Facebook to see if they are still alive.
She told Reuters in an interview: “We saw a flyer announcing that one of our child patients had been killed in the strikes. He was in the department just one week ago and was 6 years old. I cannot forget his picture.”
The World Health Organization calls for allowing the most vulnerable groups of people with chronic diseases to leave the Gaza Strip to receive treatment.
Countries such as Egypt, Turkey and the Emirates offered to receive patients.
About 20,000 patients annually required permits from Israel to leave Gaza for health care before the war, many of whom required frequent cross-border trips and a third of whom were children.
Israel approved about 63 percent of requests to leave for medical purposes in 2022, according to the World Health Organization.
Health care facilities in Gaza are suffering from severe pressure under the weight of the 16-year-old Israeli-led blockade and repeated rounds of fighting.
Osama Qaddumi, supervisor at Al-Maqasid Hospital, said, “In previous wars, the crossing was closed for a day or two, and patients were able to return after that. This is the first time that a comprehensive ban on movement has been imposed, and patients cannot leave Gaza.”
He added: “The longer we wait, the worse the condition of some patients will become. Many people will die simply because they do not receive treatment.”
chronic diseases
Concern is not limited to the most complex cases only, as according to data from United Nations organizations, there are 350,000 patients in Gaza suffering from chronic diseases, including cancer and diabetes, in addition to 50,000 pregnant women.
Most of them were previously able to obtain medical care in Gaza, but the United Nations now says that the fragile health system in the Strip is on the verge of collapse, in light of the air strikes it has been subjected to, the rise in infections, and the rapid decline in supplies of medicine and fuel.
A small amount of aid was allowed in, while about 80 patients were allowed to leave.
Richard Peppercorn, the representative of the World Health Organization in Gaza and the West Bank, said in a press conference last month, “We always talk about infections, and this is appropriate, but we have to think about 350,000 patients.”
Some needs are described as more urgent than others.
According to the World Health Organization, there are about 1,000 patients in Gaza who need dialysis to survive, but 80 percent of the machines are in local hospitals that have received orders to evacuate.
The only cancer treatment hospital in the Strip is no longer operational.
The Israeli army asked civilians to evacuate the northern Gaza Strip, where some hospitals are located, as part of its campaign, which it says aims to eliminate the Hamas movement.
The army says that Hamas is establishing its command centers under hospitals, which the movement denies.
The World Health Organization said that as the fighting intensified, about 400 patients and their companions were stranded in East Jerusalem and the West Bank after they left Gaza to receive treatment before the war.
Many of them find it difficult to communicate with their relatives in light of the deterioration of mobile phone and electricity services in Gaza.
2023-11-08 08:43:53
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