2023-11-14 22:28:20
“The youngest of them is not more than one year old, and the oldest is 14 years old.” They are considered among the most vulnerable groups in Gaza, as they suffer from various cancers in the lymph nodes and blood, and doctors say that these children are at risk of death if left without treatment.
A newspaper highlightedThe New York TimesShedding light on the attempts she described as “desperate” to evacuate child cancer patients from Gaza, explaining that the mission to save them from violence included the intervention of several countries and communications at the last minute in light of the continuing war.
The newspaper explained that during the past ten days, 21 children with cancer were evacuated from Gaza to hospitals in Egypt and Jordan, according to doctors participating in these efforts.
But at least 30 children sick with cancer were unable to leave Gaza, and aid workers told the newspaper that in light of the chaos of war, they could no longer reach the families of these children.
Speaking to the newspaper, Dr. Bakr Jaoud, head of Al-Rantisi Specialized Hospital for Children, which was the only medical center with a pediatric cancer ward in Gaza until it was forced to close its doors, on Friday, during the fierce fighting, said: “What is happening is catastrophic, because even before the hospital was closed “Seriously ill patients were being returned home through the violent streets or transferred to Al-Shifa Hospital, a nearby hospital under siege by Israeli forces.”
According to the newspaper, hospitals have become a flashpoint, especially in the ongoing war, as Israel accused Hamas of exploiting medical facilities, including Al-Rantisi and Al-Shifa, and hiding in them. Hamas and hospital officials denied these accusations.
Efforts to evacuate children with cancer began in mid-October, and required negotiations between the White House, Egypt, Israel, and Palestinian health officials in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, according to the newspaper, which explained that participants in the evacuation process said it took place intermittently.
Relief workers and doctors, who spoke to the newspaper, described the tragic situation of the families of sick children, saying that they were living in fear, especially due to the loss of communications and therefore were not informed of the specific days on which their children received permission to cross into Egypt. Some waited long hours for the ambulances to arrive, which never arrived at the meeting point.
The newspaper noted that one family arrived at the border to discover that their child had been approved to cross, but the father’s name had been inexplicably deleted from the list.
The children’s plight is a microcosm of the suffering in Gaza since the war began just over a month ago, after Hamas launched a surprise attack that Israeli authorities say killed 1,200 people. The Israeli response led to the deaths of more than 11,000 people, including more than 4,500 children, according to Gaza health officials.
The only cancer treatment hospital has stopped working
The “Friendship” Hospital stopped working on November 1, which is the only hospital specialized in treating cancer in the Gaza Strip, due to running out of fuel, threatening the lives of 70 patients inside, according to what Al-Hurra’s correspondent confirmed, quoting Palestinian officials.
The director of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, Sobhi Skaik, said in a press conference, “We tell the world do not leave cancer patients to certain death because the hospital is out of service.”
The Palestinian Minister of Health, Mai Al-Kaila, confirmed in a statement, “The Turkish Friendship Hospital in the Gaza Strip stopped working as a result of its bombing by the occupation forces yesterday and the day before yesterday, and it ran out of fuel completely.”
She said in the statement, “The lives of 70 cancer patients inside the hospital are seriously threatened.”
She added, “The number of cancer patients in the Gaza Strip is about two thousand patients, who live in catastrophic health conditions as a result of the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Strip and the displacement of a large number.”
On November 1, the World Health Organization warned of a crisis facing people with chronic diseases in Gaza, with more than 2,000 patients being treated for cancer, 45,000 people suffering from cardiovascular diseases, and more than 60,000 patients with diabetes.
On the other hand, the Israeli Army Spokesmen’s Unit said earlier to the “Al-Hurra” website that “the Hamas terrorist organization, in a flagrant violation of international law, operates from within civilian facilities (such as hospitals), and thus uses the residents of Gaza as human shields and exposes the citizens of the Strip.” Gaza is at risk.”
She added: “The army is working to evacuate the civilian population from the north of the Gaza Strip to its south, which is an area that has been defined as safer and where humanitarian infrastructure is available.”
She stressed that “not harming civilians during raids on the Gaza Strip represents a common interest for the citizens of Gaza and the State of Israel.”
Speaking to Al-Hurra website, the head of the orthopedic department at the National Arab Hospital “Al-Baptist” in Gaza, Dr. Fadl Naeem, warned of the lack of interest in cancer patients who are receiving treatment at the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, and after it stopped working, some patients were transferred to different hospitals. In the sector in an attempt to “follow up their condition.”
But their treatment and follow-up of their health condition “will not be done optimally,” especially since the majority of cancer patients need treatment abroad, whether in the West Bank, the Palestinian interior, or Egypt, and with the closure of the crossings, they lose “their chance to be treated for the incurable disease,” according to Naeem.
In turn, the director of the Gaza European Hospital, Dr. Youssef Al-Akkad, stressed the need for cancer patients for special treatments, starting with “chemotherapy sessions, then radiotherapy, and some hormone medications.”
Radiotherapy has not been available in Gaza for years, forcing hospitals to refer patients for treatment outside the Strip, which is not happening at the present time, as he explained to Al-Hurra website.
Regarding chemotherapy, 50 percent of these treatments are “unavailable” in the Gaza Strip at all, and in light of the current war and the closure of the crossings, the situation has become “more difficult,” according to Al-Aqqad.
He stressed that these patients need “regular health care, constant follow-up, and regular treatment,” but in light of the current war, it is impossible to “care for them optimally.”
Al-Aqqad warned of complications that may affect people with chronic diseases in general, and cancer patients in particular, and if they fail to receive treatments on time, their fate is “death.”
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