There are people in Gaza whose lives are hanging in the balance because hospitals are lacking medicine and fuel. The risk of death from the bombings in the Gaza Strip is high: even before Israel announced this Saturday the start of a new, probably bloodier phase of attacks in 22 days of siege, more than 7,700 Palestinians had already fallen victim to the bombings. Rockets. But those suffering from chronic illnesses that require medical treatment, whether with medication, diagnostic tests or hospital therapy, face an additional threat. These are diabetes patients who require insulin; cancer patients undergoing radiation or chemotherapy; People with kidney failure who need dialysis or cardiovascular patients who need to take daily medication… In total, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 350,000 people are in this situation in the Gaza Strip.
This population group suffers from one or more non-communicable diseases, i.e. diseases that are not caused by an acute infection but have long-term health consequences and often require treatment and care, often lifelong. Among them are four that account for more than two-thirds of deaths worldwide: cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and chronic respiratory disease. They are all present in Gaza, even if they go unnoticed. In addition, they are one of the main causes of death in the population.
When a life depends on electricity
Of the 350,000 patients who WHO estimates are suffering from a non-communicable disease, there are at least 9,000 with some form of cancer, particularly breast, liver and lung cancer, whose treatments are now suddenly being stopped. Before October 7, around 2,000 cancer patients traveled to Jerusalem, the West Bank or Israel to undergo chemotherapy or radiation therapy. because there is no availability in Gaza. These can no longer walk, and the rest had as a reference the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, the only specialized hospital in the Gaza Strip. On October 17th, its general director Dr. Sobhi Sikk announced that “a large part of its services” would have to be interrupted and that the center would be closed within the next 48 hours at the latest. A week later, the WHO Middle East Office (EMRO) confirmed that the operation was “partially” operational due to fuel shortages.
The unprecedented bombings, the closure of border crossings and the water and electricity cuts imposed by Israel in retaliation since October 7, when the Palestinian Hamas militia attacked this country, are pushing health systems to their limits. Currently, 34% of hospital centers and 64% of primary care centers are no longer operational. The hospitals that remain open are lacking supplies and valuable fuel that is essential for hospitals to continue operating. According to Doctors of the World, 19 sanatoriums were affected, seven of which were forced to close due to the damage sustained, the lack of electricity and the Israeli army’s evacuation orders. David Cantero, head of operations for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Jerusalem, denounces that the health system is on the verge of collapse. “They must allow the unconditional entry of humanitarian aid, including water, food, medicine and fuel,” he demands.
“Despite the transfer orders, 17 hospitals in northern Gaza remain operational, as evacuation would endanger the lives of many fragile patients: people undergoing hemodialysis, newborns in incubators or sick in intensive care. “They must not go without the medical care on which their lives depend,” the WHO has denounced. The limited humanitarian aid that has so far arrived through the Rafah border crossing in the south has not reached hospitals in the north.
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The fuel shortage in Gaza is most directly affecting the people whose lives now depend on electricity. Cantero warns that if the generators fail, all lives that depend on machines will be shut down “in a matter of minutes.” “People in intensive care, most of whom are on ventilators, and children lying in incubators will be the first victims,” he laments.
A health worker treats a Palestinian teenager admitted to the intensive care unit of Nasser Hospital in Gaza this Thursday. Doctors at this center have reported that they are only able to treat critical cases due to a lack of fuel. IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA (Portal)
Mecca is one of them. This is a girl who was born suddenly and prematurely on October 21st after her mother Dareen, who was in an advanced stage of pregnancy, was killed in a bomb attack. They were able to deliver the baby via cesarean section and it has been surviving in the incubator ever since. Like them, 130 newborns depend on these neonatal units.
Hemodialysis machines are also a lifeline for at least 1,000 Gazans affected by kidney failure, including 38 children, and they are also on the verge of stopping working, warns Raquel Martí, executive director of the UN Committee for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East in Spain (UNRWA). “Before [del ataque de Hamás] There were 30,000 dialysis sessions per month and this required 13,000 filters, 13,000 blood collection tubes and 26,000 cannulas. But since the beginning of the offensive, this material has not reached the Gaza Strip,” he explains about this treatment, which is used to purify the blood when the kidneys are unable to do so. This week, the general director of Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah warned on Al Jazeera television that sessions would be reduced. “Nowadays a kidney dialysis patient is treated once or twice a week for one to two hours, whereas earlier he came three times a week,” he said.
Plestia Alaquad is a Palestinian journalist from the Gaza Strip and one of the few who has been able to broadcast information since the bombings left Gaza without internet and telephone last Friday. This Saturday, Alaquad warned that the situation was getting worse by the minute. “There is no service [de red]; This means that if you die you cannot call an ambulance and some cannot continue because they run out of fuel. “Hospitals will have to stop working at any moment due to a lack of electricity,” he denounced, in line with the warnings in the WHO office’s latest emergency report.
A nurse cares for a premature baby in the neonatal ward of Shifa Hospital in Gaza on October 22. STRINGER (Portal)
The risk groups also include pregnant women, the number of whom is about 50,000, of whom 5,500 will give birth next month. They are not sick, but they are They need continuous monitoring, including ultrasound, and sometimes they need to take medication or at least take vitamin, calcium, iron or folic acid supplements that are not present. Before the invasion, 40% of pregnant women suffered from anemia, and with nutritional difficulties the situation will only get worse. “They are the first to suffer from malnutrition. They do not receive the vitamins they need for a normal pregnancy and so that the child is not born with deficiencies,” says Martí, who recalls that an average of 183 births are registered every day in the Gaza Strip.
In addition, given the critical situation in hospitals, many are already choosing to give birth at home, which increases the risk of maternal and newborn mortality.
Essential medicines for survival
The Ministry of Health estimates that their current daily consumption of medical supplies is equivalent to monthly consumption before the outbreak of the conflict. One of the most popular medications is insulin. “All medications and medical supplies are running out, including those needed for immediate response to victims (e.g. saline, anesthesia), those needed to treat long-term medical conditions (e.g. insulin) and Medicines that “save lives”. Newborns,” denounces the WHO Middle East office. Anesthesia is used for those injured by the rockets, but it is almost non-existent, forcing doctors to carry out very aggressive operations such as amputations without sedation. Also blood for Transfusions are in short supply, and even if they weren’t, keeping them refrigerated would be impossible without electricity.
Patients with cardiovascular diseases are also a concern as they are the main cause of death in the Palestinian territories. The main cause is high blood pressure, which affects 10% of the adult population.
On the other hand, the prevalence of diabetes is increasing rapidly until it has become a global health problem. In Gaza, 16% of people over 40 have diabetes and rely on insulin to keep from dying, but this treatment is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain. Rawya Halas, director of one of the UNRWA vocational training centers in Khan Yunis, cried on camera a few days ago about the desperate situation in which 15,000 people sought shelter in their school with little water to give them. “We need insulin, people are dying and we can’t give them anything; “It’s catastrophic,” he sobbed. In fact, UNRWA no longer has 85 medicines considered essential, and Martí estimates that the remaining medicines will run out in about 10 or 12 days.
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