GAZA: Rital Halawa’s mask was made to heal her. Pressed against her burned face, it is meant to protect the skin as her wounds close. Now, her mother says, it is too small. “The pressure mask is hurting her. It’s choking her neck because it’s small and tight,” Samar Halawa told Arab News. The family was in northern Gaza when Rital was injured. “A quadcopter came and dropped a bomb on the place where my daughter was,” her mother said. “The place caught fire, and so did she.” Rital is one of the patients treated by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), whose team in Gaza make bespoke face masks using 3D scanning and printing. Rital’s should have been replaced a while ago, her mother says, but the MSF team told the family the materials needed for a new one had been blocked from entering Gaza and that they would have to wait. A mask made for each face MSF began making compressive masks for facial burns patients inside Gaza in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to send patients abroad for treatment. “The aim of these masks is to prevent complications that form on the patient’s face after the wounds heal,” said Mohammed Al-Qatrawi, physiotherapy supervisor at MSF France’s Gaza clinic. “Medically, the best treatment and the best intervention is the 3D mask, because it sits fully against the face.” Patients are expected to wear the masks for about 18 hours a day, alternating a clear plastic one with a fabric version, explained Al-Qatrawi. The service is free and open to patients from the north to the south of the Strip through two MSF medical points. Demand rose during the war, he said, and the team has delivered 236 masks so far. ‘No raw materials’ However, said Al-Qatrawi, the service was now close to stopping. “Some medical materials have been blocked by the Israeli side because they are considered dual use,” he explained, saying these included the clear plastic used for the masks and the plastic filament that feeds the 3D printers. “Right now, we have no raw materials to continue this service in Gaza,” he said, adding that a long waiting list of patients has built up. MSF is calling for the raw materials to be allowed into the Gaza Strip. What aid agencies say The World Health Organization has repeatedly raised concern over Israeli restrictions on items classified as “dual use” — goods Israel says could have military as well as civilian uses. In May, the WHO said only 500 of 2,300 amputees it had assessed in Gaza had been fitted with permanent prosthetic limbs, also classed as dual use by Israel. In October, WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories, Dr. Reinhilde Van de Weerdt, urged Israel to ease pressure on medical supplies, saying essential medicines and supplies “should not be considered as dual use.” The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in September that the entry of approved dual-use items was limited to 15 truckloads a week, offloaded at the Kerem Shalom crossing one day a week. Israel’s position COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body that oversees aid to Gaza, says some requested medical goods contain materials that could be repurposed by Hamas and that Israel reviews them to prevent their use by militant groups. When an item is flagged, it says, it works with aid organizations to find replacements that meet the same medical need. A fragile ceasefire The restrictions come as violence continues despite the ceasefire that took effect in October 2025. On Thursday, Israeli strikes and gunfire killed five people across Gaza, including a woman and a 12-year-old boy, rescue services told AFP. The Israeli military told AFP it had struck “terrorists” in the Al-Zawayda area and west of Gaza City, adding it was looking into reports of the woman’s death in Khan Yunis. Israel says Hamas has been rearming and launching attacks in violation of the truce, Reuters reported, while Hamas denies this and accuses Israel of undermining the deal. Gaza’s health ministry says more than 1,600 people have been killed since the ceasefire was announced, AFP reported. For Samar Halawa, though, the issue is simple: Her daughter needs a mask that fits. “My message to the world is to keep Gaza’s children in mind, because they have the same rights as every other child,” she said. “Our children have been deprived of education, of healthcare, of so much.”