KHAN YUNIS: Ahmed Abu Athab’s aunt, Jamila, was ‘sobbing’ as she implored the world to ‘get the boy out of Gaza’ for medical treatment. Ahmed sustained injuries due to Israeli firing, this week.

He joins the fast-expanding list of wounded individuals, who are stuck in the embattled territory, without access to medical aid.

On Tuesday, Ahmed went to the beach, to wash himself with a group of children. His aunt stated that just as they were coming out, a munition landed, spraying him with shrapnel.

As Israel’s barbaric assault on the border city of Rafah continues, Ahmed now lies ‘swathed in bloody bandages’, in the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. The attack on Rafah the only part of the tiny and crowded Gaza Strip that Israeli troops had not entered by force thus far, has cut off the main border crossing into Egypt. Aid has been constricted and the ‘trickle’ of people departing for medical care, has stopped.

“Where should I take him? Tell me. Where should I go?” Jamila Abu Athab pondered.

“I ask all the leaders of the world, anyone with a conscience, to open the border and allow these children to leave. What have they done to deserve this?” she added.

Much like the vast majority of Palestinians within Gaza, Ahmed Abu Athab had already lost his home, due to the Israeli assault on the enclave. Ahmed also lost his mother (not to the war) but because she was ‘forced’ to leave Gaza, for cancer treatment.

When Jamila Abu Athab reached the child, he told her: “Auntie, I was looking for water. I want to bathe. I died, I died” she stated.

Trapped

At the ‘Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital’, in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah, the hospital’s spokesperson, Doctor Khalil al-Dakran says the Israeli military campaign has ‘unleashed a medical catastrophe’.

“All hospitals are struggling due to lack of medicine and medical necessities and fuel” he said in a video obtained by the press. He added that thousands of patients require treatment abroad but are ‘unable to travel’ after the closure of the Rafah border.

Israel ‘blames Egypt’ for the closure, says it ‘wants to reopen Rafah’, to Gazan civilians who ‘wish to flee’. However, Egyptian officials and sources say humanitarian operations are at risk due to ‘constant military activity’ and that Israel ‘needs to hand the crossing back to Palestinians’, before it can start operating again. Egypt is ‘increasingly concerned’ regarding the risks of Palestinians who were being displaced from the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian Health Minister Majed Abu Ramadan said on Wednesday that there was ‘no indication of when the Rafah crossing would reopen’. Inside the premises of the ‘Al-Aqsa Hospital’, Nashat Abed Bari says he had been ‘trying to leave Gaza for medical help’, since he sustained injuries five months ago.

“There are no capabilities here in Gaza at all. I tried to look for doctors or to go around hospitals but no one was able to help me” he said in a video obtained by the press.

“The border has been shut for more than 20 days. No one is going in or out. I need an operation urgently because my situation is getting worse every day.”

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2024