Report: 1,500 Gazans lost their sight due to Israel’s genocide

At least 1,500 Palestinians have lost their eyesight, while 4,000 others are at risk of going blind in Gaza due to the ongoing Israeli aggression, the head of Gaza’s eye hospital has said.

Dr. Abdul Salam Sabah told Al-Jazeera Arabic that the health sector is experiencing a serious shortage of medical supplies and equipment for eye surgeries, which could lead to a near-total collapse of surgical services, especially for retinal diseases including diabetic retinopathy and internal bleeding.

According to Dr. Sabah the hospital, the main facility for ophthalmic surgeries, now operates with only three heavily reused surgical scissors, dramatically increasing the risk to patients’ lives and rendering timely interventions nearly impossible.

He explained that critical medical supplies such as hyaluronic acid and ultra-fine surgical sutures are nearly exhausted while many eye injuries caused by explosions urgently require these materials, and without them, treatment is impossible.

He warned that unless there is immediate international intervention and emergency supplies and equipment are provided, the hospital will soon lose the ability to perform eye surgeries.

In this context, the head of the pediatric department at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis described the situation of children in the Gaza Strip as “catastrophic”.

He explained that the hospital suffers from a severe shortage of essential medicines and nutritional supplements for pregnant women.

Israel has closed all of Gaza’s crossings since 2 March, blocking essential supplies from entering the enclave despite multiple reports of famine and a shortage of medical supplies in the war-devastated territory.

“People are dying due to lack of medicine,” the Ministry of Health warned last week.