An increase in death rates among the displaced, especially kidney and chronic patients, due to the lack of treatment and medications (Al Jazeera)

Gaza

- Palestinian Ibrahim Al-Azzazi did not die by an Israeli shell or missile, but his family and loved ones believe that he became a martyr, after losing the appropriate treatment he had been receiving for more than 20 years, and due to the difficulty of reaching hospitals as a result of the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip for the fifth month in a row.

Since 2001, “Sheikh Ibrahim,” as he is known in the city of Rafah in the far south of the Gaza Strip, has been living with kidney failure, and regularly maintains dialysis 4 times a week at Nasser Governmental Hospital in the city of Khan Yunis. Never during these long years has he faced harsher conditions. What he was exposed to during the current war.

A few weeks before his death last December, the health of Sheikh Ibrahim (46 years old) deteriorated due to the difficulty of reaching the city of Khan Yunis, which was invaded by the occupation forces as part of a large ground operation, and he could not find a place for him in the only government hospital in Abu Youssef Al-Najjar in the city. Rafah.

The large exodus to the city of Rafah put enormous pressure on Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital, the only government hospital in the city (Al Jazeera)

Martyr of disease

Yahya Al-Azzazi believes that his uncle Sheikh Ibrahim's life has expired, but he tells Al Jazeera Net, "My uncle was patient and lived with the disease for 23 years, and he did not have a period of interruption from dialysis, as happened to him during this war (..) He is a martyr of disease and suffering."

Al-Azzazi used to go to the dialysis unit at Nasser Hospital 4 times a week, spending 3 to 4 hours at a time, even before the outbreak of the Israeli war on October 7, and because of its repercussions, he faced various kinds of suffering, starting with the lack of transportation, where Most of the taxis stopped working due to the fuel crisis, and there was even no room for him in the hospital.

Yahya says, "Nasser Hospital transferred Sheikh Ibrahim to Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, where they could not find a place for him. He was cut off from dialysis for a while, and he became tired of going back and forth between the two hospitals to get his treatment."

Of the 4 times of washing at a rate of about 12 hours a week, and in the last two weeks before his death, Sheikh Ibrahim underwent two washing sessions at a rate of one hour in each session, one of them in Nasser Hospital and the second in Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital. Yahya says, “It was not enough for my uncle’s condition, and we as a family demanded By registering and counting him as a martyr and other patients who lost their lives as a result of the war and the lack of treatment and medicines.”

Death is illness and oppression

In a similar story of suffering, sixty-year-old Wajeha Al-Jamal died. Her son Hazem told Al Jazeera Net that his mother's health condition declined rapidly and dangerously after the outbreak of the Israeli war.

For years, Wajiha (65 years old) was undergoing dialysis at Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital twice, at a rate of 8 hours per week, but due to conditions related to the war and the great pressure on the only dialysis unit in the city of Rafah, this reduced to once at a rate of only 2 hours per week.

In her last days before her death, Wajiha, who - according to Hazem - lost her “dearest daughters” as a result of an Israeli raid that claimed her life and the lives of her five daughters - suffered from tumors in parts of her body. He says, "My mother died due to illness and oppression of my sister, who was dearest to her heart."

The city of Rafah, which currently houses more than half of the Gaza Strip's population as a result of the large waves of displacement there, is witnessing a noticeable increase in death rates, including those of patients with kidney and chronic diseases.

According to documentation by the city’s Health Emergency Committee, it witnesses 30 to 40 deaths per day, while the death rate before the war was 5 cases per day.

Dr. Marwan Al-Hams: Our dialysis machines are worn out and insufficient in light of the large exodus towards Rafah (Al-Jazeera)

Imminent health collapse

The head of the Emergency Committee and Director of Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital, Dr. Marwan Al-Hams, told Al Jazeera Net that the only dialysis unit in the city was dealing with 110 patients, and this number rose to 525 patients as a result of the large exodus from all the cities of the Strip to the city of Rafah.

Local and international estimates indicate that more than a million Palestinians, representing half of the Gaza Strip's population, estimated at about 2.2 million people, were forced to flee their homes and cities to escape Israeli crimes.

This put enormous pressure on Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital, the only government hospital in the city that provides dialysis services, and it has only 18 machines. According to Al-Hams, the hospital administration was forced to reduce the weekly washing times for each patient to only two times, which is “not sufficient from a therapeutic standpoint.”

In detail, health conditions appear to be more deteriorating, as these devices are worn out and expired. Al-Hams says, “It is medically known that the life of a device ends when it reaches 20,000 working hours. Our devices have exceeded 50,000 hours, and despite that, they hardly stop working for a moment because of the great pressure on them from patients, and the lack of alternatives.

According to Al-Hams, those who suffer from chronic diseases face double suffering during the war, due to the lack of medicines, citing as an example the combination medicines for blood pressure and diabetes, the majority of which are not available in the health sector. While medications for asthma and cancer are very rare, a patient not receiving these medications regularly leads to serious complications and death.

Source: Al Jazeera