Healthcare Professionals Collapse During Emergency Care: Medical staff in Gaza are collapsing while attempting to rescue their undernourished patients.
In the besieged Gaza Strip, a humanitarian disaster is unfolding as the United Nations (UN) reports that all 2.1 million people in the region are now food insecure. This alarming situation is severely impacting healthcare professionals and pushing specialized malnutrition treatment centres well beyond capacity.
The worsening hunger crisis is exacerbating Gaza’s health emergency, overwhelming healthcare personnel with malnutrition and related illnesses under extreme resource constraints. Dr. Fadel Naim, a surgeon and the director of Al-Ahli Al-Arabi hospital, has seen colleagues collapse from hunger and malnutrition, including two who collapsed during surgeries this week. The director of nursing at Nasser Hospital, Dr. Mohammad Saqer, also fainted while working due to hunger.
The rates of severe malnutrition in children under five in clinics run by Doctors Without Borders have tripled in the last two weeks. The ward treating malnourished children at Nasser Hospital is full of children whose bones appear to be protruding from under their skin, and several have bloated stomachs - a tell-tale sign of malnutrition.
The situation is particularly dire for children born during the war, who are especially vulnerable to health problems caused by malnutrition. Another mother named Najah Hashem Darbakh's daughter Sila Darbakh is suffering from chronic diarrhea and dehydration, but there is no formula available for her.
Many international humanitarian organizations have warned about the worsening hunger crisis in Gaza, stating that they are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away. The director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stated that Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from man-made "mass starvation" due to Israel's decision to block aid.
The average daily wage in Gaza was just under $13 per day in 2021, and many mothers in Gaza are struggling to feed their children due to lack of food, with some relying on formula instead of breastfeeding. A mother named Yasmin Abu Sultan spoke to CNN as she was trying to feed her daughter Mona with a syringe.
More than 1,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces while seeking food since late May. Flour is priced like gold in Gaza. Despite these challenges, major humanitarian organizations are striving to deliver lifesaving aid and urgently advocate to remove access barriers and end violence that further compounds the crisis.
Key actions by humanitarian groups include operating the few specialized malnutrition treatment centres to care for children and vulnerable groups, delivering emergency food and water to displaced families and supporting hospitals with medical supplies and services, calling for urgent, sustained, and unhindered access to Gaza via open crossings to enable the full flow of food, water, medicines, fuel, and shelter items, advocating for the protection of civilians, health workers, and infrastructure, and highlighting the plight of healthcare workers who are themselves at risk and forced to join food queues.
The hunger crisis in Gaza is beyond what the human mind can grasp. It is a man-made disaster that demands urgent action and international intervention to alleviate the suffering of the people of Gaza and ensure their basic right to food, health, and dignity.
- The Middle East, specifically Gaza, is experiencing a severe health crisis due to a worsening hunger crisis, with many healthcare professionals struggling under the impact of malnutrition and related illnesses.
- The situation is particularly detrimental for children, with rates of severe malnutrition tripling in clinics, leaving many malnourished children visibly ill.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from "mass starvation" due to Israel's decision to block aid, causing a dire need for international intervention in the region for the provision of food, health, and dignity.
