A boy in Gaza with brain damage fights for his life amid blockade

A boy in Gaza with brain damage fights for his life amid blockade
Amr Al Hams's aunt comforts him as he lies in a hospital bed with brain damage caused by an Israeli strike on his family's tent in April, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip. (AP)
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Updated 06 July 2025
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A boy in Gaza with brain damage fights for his life amid blockade

A boy in Gaza with brain damage fights for his life amid blockade
  • Nearly 21 months into the conflict, it is nearly impossible for the critically wounded to get the care they need, doctors and aid workers say
  • Since the Israeli blockade on Gaza began in March, 317 patients, including 216 children, have left the territory for medical treatment alongside nearly 500 of their companions, according to the World Health Organization

BEIRUT: It’s as if the whole weight of Israel’s war in Gaza has fallen on Amr Al-Hams. The 3-year-old has shrapnel in his brain from an Israeli strike on his family’s tent. His pregnant mother was killed. His father is paralyzed by grief over the death of his longtime sweetheart.

Now the boy is lying in a hospital bed, unable to speak, unable to move, losing weight, while doctors don’t have the supplies to treat his brain damage or help in his rehabilitation after a weekslong blockade and constant bombardment.

Recently out of intensive care, Amr’s frail body twists in visible pain. His wide eyes dart around the room. His aunt is convinced he’s looking for his mother. He can’t speak, but she believes he is trying to say “mom.”

“I am trying as much as I can. It is difficult,” said his aunt Nour Al-Hams, his main caregiver, sitting next to him on the bed in Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza. “What he is living through is not easy.”

To reassure him, his aunt sometimes says his mother will be back soon. Other times, she tries to distract him, handing him a small ball.

The war has decimated the health system

The war began Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people captive. Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which says women and children make up most of the dead but does not specify how many were fighters or civilians.

Nearly 21 months into the conflict that displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, it is nearly impossible for the critically wounded to get the care they need, doctors and aid workers say.

The health care sector has been decimated: Nearly half of the territory’s 36 hospitals have been put out of service. Daily bombings and strikes overwhelm the remaining facilities, which are operating only partially. They struggle with shortages of anything from fuel, gauze and sutures to respirators or scanners that have broken down and can’t be replaced.

Israeli forces have raided and besieged medical facilities, claiming Hamas militants have used them as command centers. Doctors have been killed or were displaced, unable to reach hospitals because of continued military operations.

For more than 2 1/2 months, Israel blocked all food, medicine and other supplies from entering Gaza, accusing Hamas of siphoning off aid to fund its military activities, though the UN said there was no systematic diversion. The population was pushed toward famine.

Since mid-May, Israel has allowed in a trickle of aid, including medical supplies.

Gaza’s Health Ministry estimates that 33,000 children have been injured during the war, including 5,000 requiring long-term rehabilitation and critical care. Over 1,000 children, like Amr, are suffering from brain or spinal injuries or amputated limbs.

“Gaza will be dealing with future generations of kids living with all sorts of disabilities, not just brain, but limb disabilities that are consequences of amputation that could have been prevented if the health system was not under the pressures it is under, wasn’t systematically targeted and destroyed as it was,” said Tanya Hajj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care specialist who has volunteered multiple times in Gaza with international medical organizations.

A fateful journey north

In April, one week before her due date, Amr’s mother, Inas, persuaded her husband to visit her parents in northern Gaza. They trekked from the tent they lived in on Gaza’s southern coast to the tent where her parents live.

They were having an evening meal when the strike hit. Amr’s mother and her unborn baby, his grandfather and his brother and sister were killed.

Amr was rushed to the ICU at Indonesian Hospital, the largest in northern Gaza. A scan confirmed shrapnel in his brain and reduced brain function. A breathing tube was inserted into his throat.

“He is 3. Why should he bear the weight of a rocket?” his aunt asked.

His father, Mohammed, was too stunned to even visit the ICU. His wife had been the love of his life since childhood, the aunt said. He barely spoke.

Doctors said Amr needed advanced rehabilitation. But while he was at the hospital, Israeli forces attacked the facility — encircling its premises and causing damage to its communication towers, water supplies and one of its wards. Evacuation orders were issued for the area, and patients were transferred to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Another treacherous journey

But Shifa was overwhelmed with mass casualties, and staff asked the family to take Amr south, even though no ambulances or oxygen tanks could be spared.

The father and aunt had to take Amr, fresh out of ICU with the tube in his throat, in a motorized rickshaw for the 25-kilometer (15-mile) drive to Nasser Hospital.

Amr was in pain, his oxygen levels dropped. He was in and out of consciousness. “We were reading the Qur’an all along the road,” said his aunt, praying they would survive the bombings and Amr the bumpy trip without medical care.

About halfway, an ambulance arrived. Amr made it to Nasser Hospital with oxygen blood levels so low he was again admitted to ICU.

Unable to get the care he needs

Still, Nasser Hospital could not provide Amr with everything he needed. Intravenous nutrients are not available, Nasser’s head of pediatrics, Dr. Ahmed Al-Farra, said. The fortified milk Amr needed disappeared from the market and the hospital after weeks of Israel’s blockade. He has lost about half his weight.

When he came out of the ICU, Nour shared his bed with him at night and administered his medication. She grinds rice or lentils into a paste to feed him through a syringe connected to his stomach.

“We have starvation in Gaza. There is nothing to eat,” said his aunt, who is a trained nurse. “There is nothing left.”

The care Amr has missed is likely to have long-term effects. Immediate care for brain injuries is critical, Hajj-Hassan said, as is follow-up physical and speech therapy.

Since the Israeli blockade on Gaza began in March, 317 patients, including 216 children, have left the territory for medical treatment alongside nearly 500 of their companions, according to the World Health Organization.

Over 10,000 people, including 2,500 children, await evacuation.

Amr is one of them.

COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs in Gaza, coordinates medical evacuations after receiving requests from countries that will take the patients and security screenings. In recent weeks, over 2,000 patients and their companions have left for treatment, COGAT said, without specifying the time period.

Tess Ingram, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency, said the only hope for many critically injured who remain in Gaza is to get out. Countries need to “open their hearts, open their doors and open their hospitals to children who survived the unimaginable and are now languishing in pain,” she said.

Amr’s aunt reads his every move. He is unhappy with his diapers, she said. He outgrew them long ago. He was a smart kid, now he cries “feeling sorry for himself,” said Nour. He gets seizures and needs tranquilizers to sleep.

“His brain is still developing. What can they do for him? Will he be able to walk again?” Nour asked. “So long as he is in Gaza, there is no recovery for him.”


Saudi Arabia, France issue joint UN declaration calling for 2-state solution, end to Gaza war

Saudi Arabia, France issue joint UN declaration calling for 2-state solution, end to Gaza war
Updated 29 July 2025
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Saudi Arabia, France issue joint UN declaration calling for 2-state solution, end to Gaza war

Saudi Arabia, France issue joint UN declaration calling for 2-state solution, end to Gaza war
  • It pushes for reunification of Gaza and West Bank under control of the Palestinian Authority, and for Hamas to relinquish power in Gaza and surrender its weapons
  • Floats the idea of a future ‘Peace Day’ to mark formal end of the conflict and the launch of regional cooperation in trade, energy and infrastructure

NEW YORK CITY: France and Saudi Arabia issued a joint declaration at the UN on Tuesday calling for an immediate end to the war in Gaza, and setting out a detailed international road map for the implementation of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Released at the close of a high-level international conference in New York, which the two countries co-chaired, and seen by Arab News, the “New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine” outlined a time-bound process for establishing an independent, sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel, with security guarantees for both sides.

The declaration was endorsed by a broad group of international partners that had chaired working groups during the conference, including Brazil, Egypt, Japan, Ireland and the EU, in what organizers described as an “unprecedented global consensus” on the urgent need to resolve the long-standing conflict.

“The war in Gaza must end now,” the declaration stated. It condemned the attacks by Hamas against Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent Israeli military operations in Gaza that have resulted in large-scale civilian casualties and the destruction of infrastructure.

It warned that a continuing conflict, absent a credible path to peace, “poses grave threats to regional and international stability,” and called for the immediate implementation of a phased ceasefire agreement, brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the US, to end hostilities, secure the release of hostages, and ensure the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

The declaration additionally called for the reunification of Gaza and the West Bank under the control of the Palestinian Authority, and for Hamas to relinquish power in Gaza and surrender its weapons. A transitional administrative committee, backed by international partners, would be established under the authority of the PA, supported by a temporary, UN-led stabilization mission to protect civilians and assist with the security and governance transitions.

“Only a political solution can deliver peace or security,” the declaration stated, as it reaffirmed international backing for a two-state solution based on 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

The declaration also pledged broad international support for the reconstruction of Gaza, endorsing an Arab-Organization of Islamic Cooperation recovery plan, and announced a forthcoming Gaza Reconstruction Conference to take place in Cairo. It committed to the creation of a dedicated international trust fund, reaffirmed the role of UN Relief and Works Agency, and backed the Palestinian Authority’s agenda for reforms.

Recent commitments made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to hold elections and pursue peaceful statehood, alongside plans for democratic reforms and enhanced governance, were welcomed.

The signatories also called on Israeli authorities to halt settlement activity, end settler violence, and give a clear public commitment to a two-state solution. “Unilateral measures threaten to destroy the last remaining path to peace,” the declaration warned.

It linked Palestinian statehood to broader normalization and integration efforts in the Middle East. It proposed exploration of a regional security framework, modeled on the Association of

Southeast Asian Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and floated the idea of a future “Peace Day” to mark the formal conclusion of the conflict and the launch of regional cooperation in trade, energy and infrastructure.

The co-chairs of the conference pledged to present a progress report on efforts to implement the declaration during the 80th session of the UN General Assembly in September, and tasked the chairs of the working groups with establishing a follow-up mechanism under the umbrella of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution.

“This is a historic opportunity,” the declaration stated. “The time for decisive, collective action is now — to end the war, realize Palestinian statehood, and secure peace and dignity for both peoples.”

The long road to Palestinian statehood
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Israel military intercepts Houthi missile fired from Yemen

Israel military intercepts Houthi missile fired from Yemen
Updated 29 July 2025
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Israel military intercepts Houthi missile fired from Yemen

Israel military intercepts Houthi missile fired from Yemen
  • Houthis later claimed the attack, saying they had fired a missile at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv

JERUSALEM: Sirens sounded in several Israeli cities, including Jerusalem, on Tuesday as the military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen, with Houthi militants later claiming the attack.

“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted by the Israeli air force,” the military said in a statement.

The Houthis later claimed the attack, saying they had fired a missile at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi fighters have launched repeated missile and drone attacks against Israel since their Palestinian ally Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war.

The Houthis, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians, paused their attacks during a two-month ceasefire in Gaza that ended in March, but renewed them after Israel resumed major operations.

Israel has carried out several retaliatory strikes in Yemen, targeting Houthi-held ports and the airport in the rebel-held capital Sanaa.


Israel ‘using thirst as a weapon to kill Palestinians’ in Gaza, UN experts say

Israel ‘using thirst as a weapon to kill Palestinians’ in Gaza, UN experts say
Updated 29 July 2025
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Israel ‘using thirst as a weapon to kill Palestinians’ in Gaza, UN experts say

Israel ‘using thirst as a weapon to kill Palestinians’ in Gaza, UN experts say
  • ‘Cutting off water and food is a silent but lethal bomb that kills mostly children and babies,’ they warn
  • As summer temperatures soar and hygiene conditions deteriorate rapidly, fatalities from dehydration are increasing and outbreaks of waterborne diseases are spreading

NEW YORK CITY: A group of UN human rights experts on Monday accused Israeli authorities of deliberately depriving Palestinians in Gaza of access to clean drinking water. They described this alleged action as a grave violation of international law and a potential crime against humanity.

“Israel is using thirst as a weapon to kill Palestinians,” the experts said. “Cutting off water and food is a silent but lethal bomb that kills mostly children and babies.”

The independent experts, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, said that water and sanitation systems in Gaza have been systematically targeted throughout the Israel’s ongoing military campaign.

Since the conflict began in October 2023, Israeli forces have destroyed or severely damaged wells, pipelines, desalination plants and sewage networks. According to the UN, nearly 90 percent of the territory’s water infrastructure is no longer functional, leaving more than 90 percent of the population without reliable access to safe water supplies.

As summer temperatures soar and hygiene conditions deteriorate rapidly, fatalities from dehydration are increasing and outbreaks of waterborne disease are spreading. Most of the 2 million residents of Gaza have been displaced, with many of them forced to drink contaminated water and live without even basic sanitation.

“This catastrophe was not only predictable, it was predicted,” the UN experts said. “The deliberate denial of water and essential supplies is part of a pattern of collective punishment and may amount to extermination under international law.”

The experts referred to an advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice in July 2024, which reaffirmed Israel’s obligations as an occupying power to ensure civilians are able to access adequate supplies of food and water.

Instead, the experts noted, Israeli authorities have further reduced the already limited flow of emergency water deliveries, and continue to block essential shipments of fuel required to power desalination and sanitation systems.

The UN Relief and Works Agency, the main humanitarian agency in Gaza, has warned that it will be forced to close several of its remaining wells entirely unless immediate authorization is granted for fuel deliveries to the territory. These sources currently provide hundreds of thousands of liters of water to people each day for drinking and hygiene purposes.

“With fuel supplies nearly exhausted, humanitarian organizations are scaling back life-saving work, including the distribution of water,” the UN experts said.

Describing the situation as “barbaric,” they added that the actions of the Israeli government meet the legal definition of genocide. They cited the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court and defines genocide as “deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of a population.”

They urged the international community to act decisively, calling for the immediate deployment of naval humanitarian missions from Mediterranean ports to deliver fuel, water and aid workers to Gaza. They also called for urgent action to restore water and sanitation systems in Gaza, and an end to restrictions on humanitarian access.

“The international community must act now to end this inhumane and unlawful deprivation,” the experts said. “This is a test of global conscience — and failure is not an option.”

The statement was issued by seven of UN’s special rapporteurs and experts responsible for issues related to human rights, water and sanitation, food, health, displaced persons, and the occupied Palestinian territories. They operate independently, are not members of UN staff, work on a voluntary basis and do not speak on behalf of the organization.


Far-right minister says Israel should reoccupy Gaza

Far-right minister says Israel should reoccupy Gaza
Updated 29 July 2025
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Far-right minister says Israel should reoccupy Gaza

Far-right minister says Israel should reoccupy Gaza
  • Bezalel Smotrich evoked the 2005 withdrawal in which Israel evacuated 8,000 settlers and its soldiers from the Gaza Strip
  • Several Israeli far-right groups will march Wednesday under the slogan “20 years later, we’re coming back to the Gaza Strip”

JERUSALEM: Israel should reoccupy Gaza rather than negotiate with Hamas, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Tuesday at an event marking the 20th anniversary of Israel’s withdrawal of settlers from the Palestinian territory.

“Gaza is an integral part of Israel. How to move on to a tangible plan (for resettlement)? We need to need think about it, and above all we must succeed,” said Smotrich, who lives in a settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Smotrich, who had threatened to leave the government if it allowed aid into Gaza, was on the back foot a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized new humanitarian deliveries.

“If I’m still in the government despite everything, it’s probably because I have good reasons to believe positive things are about to happen,” the head of the Religious Zionism Party said.

Smotrich evoked the 2005 withdrawal in which Israel evacuated 8,000 settlers and its soldiers from the Gaza Strip.

“Who could have thought 20 years ago that Gaza would be like it is now?” he asked the audience, before suggesting that conditions in the territory now favored a return of Israeli settlers.

During a meeting at the Israeli parliament last week, elected officials and ministers were presented with a plan for the construction of new settlements.

“This is doable and realistic. I’m very optimistic. Conquering Gaza and settling it as an integral part of the State of Israel,” Smotrich said at the time.

Fellow far-right minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf echoed his comment. “This is the price that the terrorists must pay, and God willing, as soon as possible,” he said.

Several Israeli far-right groups will march Wednesday under the slogan “20 years later, we’re coming back to the Gaza Strip.”

Gaza’s Hamas government reacted angrily to Smotrich’s remarks, calling them “an explicit threat to continue the crimes of genocide and forced displacement against our people.”


Israeli public figures urge ‘crippling sanctions’ on their country amid Gaza famine

Israeli public figures urge ‘crippling sanctions’ on their country amid Gaza famine
Updated 29 July 2025
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Israeli public figures urge ‘crippling sanctions’ on their country amid Gaza famine

Israeli public figures urge ‘crippling sanctions’ on their country amid Gaza famine
  • Group of 31 signatories to letter includes academics, artists and public intellectuals
  • Appeal follows mounting international condemnation of Israel’s conduct in the strip

LONDON: High-profile Israeli public figures have called for “crippling sanctions” to be launched against Israel by the international community to avert further disaster in Gaza.

The appeal came in a letter to The Guardian by a group of 31 signatories, including academics, artists and public intellectuals.

The letter was signed by Academy Award recipient Yuval Abraham; former Attorney General of Israel Michael Ben-Yair; former Parliament Speaker Avraham Burg; and winners of the Israel Prize, the country’s top cultural award, among others.

Israel is “starving the people of Gaza to death and contemplating the forced removal of millions of Palestinians from the strip,” the letter says.

Its signatories are esteemed figures in journalism, science, academia and more, representing a significant shift in Israeli public life, as more prominent figures begin to criticize the war in Gaza.

The letter’s endorsement of severe international sanctions against Israel is also taboo; politicians in the country have called for the targeting of those who promote such measures.

Israel’s war in Gaza, which is reaching the two-year mark, is also generating further public angst and criticism of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The wider Jewish diaspora is engaged in renewed debate over the trajectory and morality of the war.

This week, two of Israel’s top human rights groups, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, published reports that described their country’s actions in Gaza as “genocidal.”

Tuesday’s letter says: “The international community must impose crippling sanctions on Israel until it ends this brutal campaign and implements a permanent ceasefire.

“No one should be unaffected by the pervasive hunger experienced by thousands of Gazans. No one should spend the bulk of their time arguing technical definitions between starvation and pervasive hunger.

“The situation is dire, and it is deadly. Nor should we accept arguments that because Hamas is the primary reason many Gazans are either starving or on the verge of starving, that the Jewish state is not also culpable in this human disaster. The primary moral response must begin with anguished hearts in the face of such a large-scale human tragedy.

“Blocking food, water, medicine, and power — especially for children — is indefensible,” it said. “Let us not allow our grief to harden into indifference, nor our love for Israel to blind us to the cries of the vulnerable. Let us rise to the moral challenge of this moment.”

Earlier this month, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in comments to The Guardian, condemned his country’s planned “humanitarian city” in southern Gaza as a concentration camp.

Forcing Palestinians inside the zone from the rest of the enclave would amount to ethnic cleansing, he added.

Netanyahu and his government continue to deny the existence of famine in Gaza, or any potential Israeli links to the disaster unfolding in the territory.