2024-01-15 11:15:53
People with chronic diseases in Gaza struggle to survive under the Israeli siege
For many weeks, the elderly Salah Awad (73 years old) was unable to obtain diabetes medications that were provided to him by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and he now faces the risk of having his foot amputated after doctors amputated one of his toes a few days ago.
Awad, who lives in Al-Shati camp, west of Gaza City, and whose house was severely damaged as a result of an air strike on the camp at the beginning of the ground war. He was displaced from one school to another, and during that trip he was unable to provide his medicines. Because he did not find it in UNRWA, in hospitals, or in pharmacies, and he tried to live with his chronic illness in conditions that did not help him at all.
Awad told Asharq Al-Awsat that he tried to obtain his medications in every way, but he did not succeed. He added: “UNRWA stopped distributing medicines, and we did not find them anywhere else. Hospitals ran out of medicine first, and with the beginning of the war, people bought everything they could from pharmacies. I tried to get medicines in every way. The insulin was cut off first, then the medications. “I didn’t find anything.”
A Palestinian stands amid the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli air strikes on the Beach refugee camp in Gaza City (dpa)
Awad tried to adapt to the new situation, but to no avail. Two weeks ago, doctors had to amputate his toe, and told him that they might have to amputate part of his foot later.
“What do I do? Do I follow a regime without food, water, and medicine…with a lot of grief, worry, and death?” He said sarcastically, then added: “In the end, we will die like all those who died.” If not by bombing, then by diabetes.” Even providing him with follow-up care for his wound after his foot was amputated has become a kind of luxury in the areas of Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip, with most hospitals out of service.
About 800,000 people live in northern Gaza and the city, with almost no hospitals, and few doctors who were not forced to leave for the south.
Ashraf Al-Qudra, spokesman for the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, said that hundreds of thousands of patients face a great risk to their lives due to the exhaustion of medicines and medical supplies, especially life-saving ones, noting that the occupation prevents the entry of any medicines.
He added that the occupation does not allow international institutions, whether in the north or south, to deliver medicines and medical consumables in a way that allows ensuring the provision of health services to these patients.
The south is no better
If the north suffers from a lack of hospitals, doctors, and clinics, the situation in the south, where there are hospitals and doctors, is not better for those with chronic diseases.
Sami Abu Shaaban (51 years old), who suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, confirmed that he is facing a critical health condition, as a result of which he may have to amputate his foot in the coming days.
Palestinians rejoice with medicines and medical supplies dropped by the Jordanian army by air on the Jordanian field hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip (EPA)
Abu Shaaban is in the tents of the displaced in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, and from there he is trying to leave for Egypt. He told Asharq Al-Awsat: “I want to save my life.” I submitted all the medical reports confirming that if I stayed here, I would die. but to no avail”.
He added: “There are no medications available. Thousands like me here cannot find medicine and are waiting for a slow death. Imagine, I am now waiting for my right foot to be amputated. There is no treatment, no medicine, and no health care available. There is only death here.”
Abu Shaaban hopes that he will be able to travel to Egypt, or at least that they will allow the entry of medicines. “We don’t ask for much,” he said. “We want medicines so we don’t die.”
While Awad and Abu Shaaban, who suffer from type 2 diabetes, can deal with the complications of the disease, Karim (18 years old) suffers from type 1 diabetes, and his body does not produce a sufficient amount of insulin, which regulates blood sugar levels. His supply of insulin doses will run out within days, and he may be at risk of life-threatening complications.
Aouni, Kareem’s father, told Human Rights Watch that an Israeli air strike on October 9 hit a mosque near his family’s home in the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza, killing three people. The family then moved south to Aouni’s wife’s family home in Deir al-Balah, where they stayed for 10 days.
Children resting on bags of food aid from UNRWA in the Beach camp in Gaza, June 5 (AFP)
Karim needed insulin, and a United Nations clinic advised Awni to try to find insulin further south in Rafah. So the family moved to Aouni’s uncle’s house there, where 34 people were crowded into 4 bedrooms. Awni said that he found doses of insulin after arriving there, but “there is no place from which we can get insulin now in Rafah.”
Like tens of thousands of other Gazans who depend on insulin to regulate diabetes, Karim can no longer obtain insulin; As a result of a blockade imposed by the Israeli government on the Gaza Strip.
The World Health Organization said that Gaza faces a severe insulin shortage, and in addition, the scarcity of test strips, safe water and food supplies makes it difficult for diabetics to control blood glucose levels.
The son-in-law of a Human Rights Watch employee who works with the Haifa Pediatric Diabetes Association, which previously provided insulin to children and tested blood glucose levels for 750 children, said: “I do not have one cream, but 750 like Karim in my association.” . “If children do not receive insulin, their lives are in danger.”
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