Deir Al-Balah, Gaza:

When girls complain to Gaza paediatrician Lobna al-Azaiza that they have no comb, she tells them to cut off their hair.

It’s not just combs. Israel’s blockade of the territory, ravaged by 10 months of war, means there is little or no shampoo, soap, period products or household cleaning materials.

Waste collection and sewage treatment have also collapsed, and it’s easy to see why contagious diseases that thrive on overcrowding and lack of cleanliness – such as scabies or fungal infections – are on the rise.

“In the past period, the most common disease we have seen was skin rashes, skin diseases, which have many causes, including the overcrowding in the camps, the increased heat inside the tents, the sweating among children, and the lack of sufficient water for bathing,” the doctor said.

Azaiza used to work at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia until Israeli tanks separated the north of the besieged enclave from the south.

Like most of Gaza’s medics, she has adapted and continues to treat patients, walking to work past her own ruined house, demolished by an Israeli strike.

The tent clinic she set up with a small team began by treating children but has by necessity become a practice for whole families, most of whom have also been ordered or bombed out of their homes, like the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people.

Even the medication that is available is often unaffordable; a tube of simple burn ointment can now cost 200 shekels ($53).

International aid deliveries have been dramatically reduced since Israel seized control of the Rafah border crossing from Egypt, exacerbating a humanitarian crisis.

Israel denies responsibility for delays in getting urgent humanitarian aid in, saying that the UN and others are responsible for its distribution inside the enclave.

Azaiza has little doubt about where the immediate solution lies:

“The border crossing must be opened so that we can bring in medications, as most of the current ones are ineffective: zero effect, there is no effect on the skin diseases that we see.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

As the Israel-Hamas war continues to escalate, a doctor based in Gaza revealed a horrifying ordeal of the time when he was working in the operation theatre and the entire ceiling of the operation theatre fell on them after the hospital was hit by a deadly explosion on Tuesday night. Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a plastic surgeon from London, said that parts of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City were on fire.

“I was in the operating room when the missile struck and the full ceiling of the operating cell fell on us. There were amputated parts. There were people with primary amputations,” he told the BBC.

He added, “40% of all the cases that I’ve seen have been children. A lot of them have been like this, they have lost one or two parents. And unfortunately, these kids have a long, long recovery road in front of them.”

Describing the scene as a “massacre”, he stated, “There’s broken glass everywhere, there are lots of people who are seeking refuge in the hospital.”

The surgeon further informed that water pressure was currently too low to power some of the equipment and that resources were running out quickly.

A strike on the Gaza hospital compound which health officials there said killed at least 500 people, on Tuesday, has sparked outrage around the globe. While the Palestine group Hamas has blamed Israel for the deadly strike, the Israeli Army said the hospital was hit by a rocket misfired by Islamic Jihad, an ally of the Hamas group. Following the hospital bombing, US President Joe Biden, who arrived in Israel that day, spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I am outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza and the terrible loss of life that resulted,” Biden said in a statement.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) termed the hospital strike as “unprecedented in its scale”, adding that 115 healthcare facilities in Gaza have been attacked, leaving most of the city’s hospitals out of operation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was one of the first world leaders to call out the October 7 assault by Hamas on Israel as a terror attack, has condemned Tuesday’s strike on a hospital in Gaza, which killed 500 people. 

In a social media post on Wednesday, the PM said he was “deeply shocked” by the deaths in the attack and extended his condolences to the families of those killed. 

Even as Israel and Palestine remain locked in a blame game over who was responsible for the horrific hospital strike, PM Modi raised concern over civilian casualties in the war and called for those involved in the attack to be held responsible. 

“Deeply shocked at the tragic loss of lives at the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza. Our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, and prayers for speedy recovery of those injured. Civilian casualties in the ongoing conflict are a matter of serious and continuing concern. Those involved should be held responsible,” the Prime Minister posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Deeply shocked at the tragic loss of lives at the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza. Our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, and prayers for speedy recovery of those injured.

Civilian casualties in the ongoing conflict are a matter of serious and continuing concern.…

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 18, 2023

The post came at nearly the same time as US President Joe Biden landed in Israel on a visit which is meant to show solidarity with the country. 
 

Leaders of Western intelligence services said they are attuned to the potential fallout in their home countries of the deadly attacks by Hamas on Israel.

Representatives from intelligence agencies from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Australia — a coalition known as the “Five Eyes” — convened in California to discuss Chinese economic espionage. But the meeting unfolded against the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said his agency is working with local law enforcement to address threats of violence against both the Jewish and Muslim communities. It is also working through its legal attache office in Tel Aviv, Israel, to locate and identify Americans who remain unaccounted for after the Oct. 7 attacks.

David Vigneault, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said events like the Hamas attack lead to “soul searching” about “what we know, what we knew, what we can do in our own countries” to protect against similar violence.

-AP