A Consultant Surgeon's Report
I'm writing this from Nasser hospital in southern Gaza, where I've just finished operating on another severely malnourished young teenager. A seven month old baby lies in our paediatric intensive care unit, so tiny and malnourished that I initially mistook her as a newborn. The phrase "skin and bones" doesn't do justice to the way her body has been ravaged. She is literally wasting away before our eyes, and we are powerless to save her. We are witnessing deliberate starvation in Gaza right now. This is my third time in Gaza since December 2023 as a volunteer surgeon with Medical Aid for Palestinians... The malnutrition crisis has become catastrophic since my last visit. Every day I watch patients deteriorate and die - not from their injuries, but because they are too malnourished to survive surgery... Four babies have died in the last few weeks in this hospital - not from bombs or bullets, but from starvation.. Children are being given 10% dextrose (sugar water)...