By Laure Stephan, Le Monde
According to Palestinian news agency Wafa, two babies who had been treated at Nasser Hospital were buried on Thursday, June 26. They died of hunger and lack of necessary care. Nidal was 5 months old, and Kinda had only lived for 10 days. Between early March and mid-May, 57 children died of malnutrition, according to the Hamas Health Ministry, a figure also reported by the World Health Organization (WHO). UNICEF reported that in May alone, over 5,000 children aged 6 months to 5 years were admitted for treatment of acute malnutrition, a scourge that did not exist in Gaza before the war.
Baby formula is not the only item viewed with suspicion at the Allenby Bridge. British orthopedic surgeon Graeme Groom, whose speciality is, along with anesthesiology, one of the most sought in Gaza, said he was "not allowed to bring anything with him" for the first time in May, upon his fourth mission to Gaza in 20 months of war. No scalpel, no staples, no circular external fixators used to stabilize fractures and thereby "reduce the risk of infection and, therefore, amputation."