Over 1,000 Children in Gaza Have Had One or Both Legs Amputated Since Oct 7
International aid workers describe a growing
humanitarian nightmare in the Strip
by Kyle Anzalone Posted onDecember 29, 2023
International aid workers visiting the Gaza Strip are relaying the horrific
situation Israel is inflicting on the Palestinians. UNICEF reports over 1,000
children have lost legs. Israel is forcing the 2.3 million residents of Gaza
into increasingly small areas that lack the ability to accommodate basic needs
for survival.
UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said, “Around 1,000
children in Gaza have lost one or both their legs.” He told journalists in
Geneva that “every single child is enduring these ten weeks of hell and not one
of them can escape.”
Due to the conditions in Gaza, as well as the lack of aid, doctors are often
forced to conduct surgeries in unsanitary facilities and without painkillers.
“Not only were they amputated without anesthesia, but many of them were
amputated in a very quick fashion,” he said.
Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a London-based surgeon who
traveled to Gaza to treat patients, told Middle East Eye that having to perform these operations without
anesthetic was “one of the most difficult things I’ve had to do in my career.”
At a November press conference, he said, “One night, at Al-Ahli Hospital, I
performed amputations on six children.”
The UNICEF official said that even if children recover
from the amputation, they do not escape the hell of the threat of death. “As a
parent of a critically sick child told me, ‘Our situation is pure misery…I
don’t know if we will make it through this.’”
Spokesperson Dr. Margaret Harris added that WHO staff
in Gaza spoke of not being able to walk in the emergency wards “for fear of
stepping on people” lying on the floor “in severe pain” and asking for food and
water. She called the situation “unconscionable” and said that it is “beyond
belief that the world is allowing this to continue.”
The Israeli military has destroyed most hospitals in
Gaza. The medical facilities continuing to operate face frequent attacks and a
lack of supplies. A Washington Post investigation
recently found that the Israeli Air Force is using 2,000-pound
bombs near hospitals.
Elder went on to say that the Israeli military
operations make civilians face the constant threat of death. He explained,
“Where do children and their families go? They are not safe in hospitals. They
are not safe in shelters. And they are certainly not safe in the so-called
‘safe’ zones.” The safe zones are “tiny patches of barren land, or street
corners, or half-built buildings, with no water, no facilities, no shelter from
the cold and the rain and no sanitation.”
In recent weeks, experts have warned that forcing
Palestinians into safe zones with no aid or infrastructure will lead to famine
and epidemics. Aid groups have already estimated there are 100,000 cases of
diarrhea and 150,000 respiratory infections. In addition, 570,000 Palestinians
in Gaza are in a state of starvation. Elder warned the combination of
malnutrition and disease will be lethal for the population.
“An immediate and long-lasting humanitarian ceasefire
is the only way to end the killing and injuring of children, and child deaths
from disease, and enable the urgent delivery of desperately needed life-saving
aid,” the UNICEF spokesperson explained.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com,
news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
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