Gaza: Siege cuts critical medical supplies

With the siege preventing access to Gaza since 2 March, trucks have delivered no aid or commercial goods for more than a month, the longest period since the start of the war. And with electricity cut since 9 March, desalination plants have produced no water.

“The Israeli authorities have condemned the people of Gaza to unbearable suffering,” says Myriam Laaroussi, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza. “This deliberate infliction of harm on people is like a slow death; it must end immediately.”

During Ramadan and the Eid-ul-Fitr festival marking the end of the Muslim holy month, patients in MSF clinics reported weight loss because they could not access proper food. “Right now, my blood levels are low, and my weight is also low,” said a pregnant mother at the MSF clinic in Mawasi, Khan Younis. “There aren’t enough food supplies. . . . The rising prices are a huge problem in the city: people simply cannot afford to buy necessities because of how expensive everything is.”
 

The siege has forced MSF teams to ration medications such as painkillers, provide less effective treatment or turn patients away. In some basic healthcare clinics, for example, teams are dressing wounds without providing pain relief or applying only small amounts of pain relief lotion for skin conditions.

With a lack of soap and clean water, teams are reporting an increase in the number of people with skin conditions. In February, MSF teams treated 565 cases at the Al Hekker clinic in Deir Al Balah and 1,198 cases at the Al Attar clinic in Khan Younis. In just two weeks the following month, case numbers reached 437—nearly 80 per cent of February’s total—at Al Hekker and 711—60 per cent of February’s total—at Al Attar. Some conditions, such as scabies, require treatment for the entire family, but without medication, preventing reinfection or spread of infection is impossible.

With a lack of stock, teams can no longer donate blood bags to Nasser Hospital, which is receiving an influx of war-wounded patients.

Teams are also running out of surgical supplies such as anaesthetics, paediatric antibiotics and medicines for chronic conditions such as epilepsy.
 

For people with non-communicable diseases, such as hypertension and diabetes, the lack of treatment may lead to severe complications—permanent disabilities and, in some cases, even death. MSF has only been able to give patients medication to cover needs for seven to 10 days.

“I don’t have any blood pressure medication left,” says Sobheya Al-Beshiti, a patient at the Al Attar clinic. “My son searched for two days and couldn’t find any. What can I do? Stay without treatment? If I don’t take my blood thinner, my nose starts bleeding, and I start coughing blood.”