Palestinian mother fears for triplets' lives amid acute shortage of food, medicine

Naziha Avad had to move from Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza to the south due to the ongoing Israeli military offensive. The Palestinian mother is concerned about her triplets — Melek, Hidir and Mustafa — who are malnourished and have lost significant weight, and as a result are fighting for their lives due to the acute shortage of food and medicines in the coastal enclave.

The Israeli occupation army raided Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in Gaza which houses thousands of patients and displaced people, on 18 March. When it entered the hospital last November, it claimed that the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, used it as a command centre.

According to Gaza’s government media office, more than 250 Palestinians have been killed and wounded in the Israeli attacks on the medical facility.

Avad, 44, told Anadolu that she and her children are sharing a tent with another displaced family until they find another place to shelter. She appealed for food and medical care for her children to recover, emphasising the dire conditions they are facing.

As the intense bombing of the Gaza Strip continues, hospitals where the injured are treated have become battlegrounds ( Omar Zaghloul – Anadolu Agency )

Besides targeting residential areas, hospitals, schools and shelters where displaced Palestinians seek refuge, Israel has also prevented humanitarian aid from entering the Gaza Strip, resulting in a humanitarian catastrophe for its 2.3 million population.

The occupation state has waged its deadly offensive on Gaza since a cross-border incursion led by the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, on 7 October in which nearly 1,200 people were killed, many of them at the hands of the Israel Defence Forces. More than 32,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed by Israel in Gaza, and nearly 75,000 others have been wounded amid mass destruction.

International organisations, including UN agencies and the UN Security Council, have called for a ceasefire in Gaza and increased humanitarian aid access to address the medical shortages, hunger, thirst and hygiene deficiencies leading to diseases in Gaza. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on 10 March that “hunger is everywhere” in Gaza.

READ: Israel executed 13 children in Gaza in front of their families, says human rights NGO