The Electronic Intifada 8 January 2025
Emad Abu Dahrooj was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease when he was 7. With Israel’s near total blockade on the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Gaza, he is now dangerously underweight.
Emad Abu Dahrooj, 14, weighs just 24 kilograms.
He is both severely malnourished and dehydrated. He is also a kidney patient in need of regular dialysis.
This makes him particularly vulnerable. Israel continues to prevent the delivery to Gaza of most humanitarian aid, food, water and medical supplies, and famine stalks the entire coastal territory, especially the north, where Israel has all but cut off assistance entirely as part of its campaign of extermination.
To make matters worse, there are just 17 partially functioning hospitals left operating in Gaza, one of which – the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah – is where Emad goes for his dialysis treatment.
“I bring him every other day to the hospital to undergo dialysis,” said his father Nidal Abu Dahrooj. “He is really collapsing. He always isolates himself because he refuses to be seen this way.”
Nidal said his son had been living with his chronic kidney condition since he was 7, but he hadn’t needed any dialysis sessions for five years.
That all changed with Israel’s post-7 October 2023 military onslaught that would eventually in November 2023 force Emad and his family of five from their home in Jabaliya in the north to Deir al-Balah where they stay in a tent in a camp for the displaced.
“Since war broke out and he could eat only canned food, he had to resume dialysis,” Nidal said, who pointed out that the tent the family lives in is surrounded by stagnant sewage water and litter, a breeding ground for bacteria that can also cause and exacerbate kidney failure.
Scant resources
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital has 23 dialysis machines for a current total of 206 kidney patients.
With so many patients and so many diseases floating about, the hospital has designated one machine for people with hepatitis B, another for those with hepatitis C and still another for children.
“When the war broke out, we had 106 kidney patients here at the hospital,” said Abdel-Naser Abu Aisha, head nurse of the hospital’s dialysis department. “When the Israeli military launched its ground operations in Rafah [in early May], we ended up with nearly five times this number.”
Some 1.9 million people out of Gaza’s pre-genocide population of 2.3 million are estimated forcibly displaced, leaving decimated health services struggling to cope.
The numbers of kidney patients have come down now, Abu Aisha said, because half the patients have died in the meantime of various causes, mostly related to hospital overcrowding and the general conditions in Gaza.
The hospital is able to offer patients three dialysis sessions per week. Each lasts three hours.
In total, they have nine hours of dialysis, which is the minimum number of hours a kidney patient has around the world.
Giving the bare minimum has put the lives of many at risk, according to Abu Aisha.
This includes Emad. Doctors have recommended that his family try to locate iron and calcium for him to ease his symptoms, Nidal, his father, said.
They also have him on a waiting list to leave Gaza for treatment.
“Neither has happened because of Israel’s continued blockade of the crossings,” Nidal said. “I can’t guarantee his life for an extra second. I hope we can manage to leave.”
Beyond imagination
Raghad Abu Sultan, 48, is a mother of five.
She was forced to flee her house in Gaza City’s Beach refugee camp in October, when she sought shelter at al-Shifa Hospital in order to ensure she still had access to dialysis treatment. But when the hospital was raided a month later, she had to head to Deir al-Balah.
She has three sons and two daughters, all above 20. Three of her children take refuge with her in a dilapidated tent next to the hospital.
One son was killed during the war, and another was captured by Israeli forces last May when he went to buy some goods near the Israeli-controlled checkpoint Karem Abu Salem.
“I can’t stand on my feet,” Raghad told The Electronic Intifada. “I barely eat a pocket of pita every day. I fall unconscious many times because my body is so frail and weak. Two days ago, I fell unconscious and was about to die as I didn’t have a bite of food for a whole day.”
Raghad has thalassemia and hepatitis C and is in urgent need of intensive care and good nutrition. None is available.
“This is beyond imagination. I can’t afford anything,” Raghad sighed. “I am physically and mentally burnt out. My medicine is not available anywhere. I am always in pain. I feel like I am being tortured every single hour.”
Yasmin Mushtaha, 38, has been taking refuge in Deir al-Balah since being displaced from her home in the Shujaiya neighborhood in Gaza City. She describes her situation as “unbearable” and “devastating.”
“I live in a tent, shivering with cold every night because we don’t have winter clothes or blankets. My blood is weak since I am malnourished.”
She lacks proper medications and suffers hypertension too, she told The Electronic Intifada. And everything is exacerbated by the grim conditions of life in Gaza, the lack of clean water, flow of sewage everywhere and the severely limited diet available.
In addition, Raghad is separated from most of her family, still stranded in the north, with only her daughters coming with her southwards.
“I just want to go back to what’s left of my home to reunite with my family and receive suitable treatment. We’ve borne the unbearable. Our life has become hell. We need someone to stop the war because we can’t endure it anymore.”
The pain
In order to manage kidney disease, people are usually told to avoid dirty water and eat a balanced diet.
But most humanitarian food assistance comes in the form of canned foods that are not healthy for kidney patients.
“The preservatives in canned food turn into toxins, taking a heavy toll on their health,” said Abdel-Naser Abu Aisha, the nurse. And with health services debilitated and medicines scarce, medical professionals are struggling to cope.
“The war must stop now,” Abu Aisha said. “There is no other solution.”
The boy Emad nearly died when he fell into a coma during one visit to the hospital, Nidal, his father, told The Electronic Intifada. The boy also has anemia and inflammation and struggles to stand on his feet, his father said.
And then there is the pain.
“My legs always hurt me,” Emad told The Electronic Intifada. “I can’t sleep or do anything. I also haven’t eaten bread for two days. I don’t want to see these tubes on my body anymore. I just want to be like other children and I want to go home with my family.”
Abubaker Abed is a journalist and translator from Deir al-Balah refugee camp in Gaza.
