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 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.”
Gaza’s girls cut off their hair for lack of combs
https://arab.news/44gvp
Gaza’s girls cut off their hair for lack of combs
- The tent clinic she set up with a small team began by treating children, but has by necessity become a practice for whole families
- Even the medication that is available is often unaffordable; a tube of simple burn ointment can now cost $53
Hamas says will give up arms to a Palestinian authority ‘if occupation ends’
- “We accept the deployment of UN forces as a separation force, tasked with monitoring the borders and ensuring compliance with the ceasefire in Gaza,” Hayya says
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Hamas said Saturday it was ready to hand over its weapons in the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian authority governing the territory on the condition that the Israeli army’s occupation ends.
“Our weapons are linked to the existence of the occupation and the aggression,” Hamas chief negotiator and its Gaza chief Khalil Al-Hayya said in a statement, adding: “If the occupation ends, these weapons will be placed under the authority of the state.” Asked by AFP, Hayya’s bureau said he was referring to a sovereign and independent Palestnian state.
“We accept the deployment of UN forces as a separation force, tasked with monitoring the borders and ensuring compliance with the ceasefire in Gaza,” Hayya added, signalling his group’s rejection of the deployment of an international force in the Strip whose mission would be to disarm it.
