As the world leaders produce yet more words and pass yet more resolutions on the genocide on Gaza, more than 12,000 children now are severely, dangerously malnourished as Israel continues to deny sufficient food into the Strip.

More than 1700 desperate people are slaughtered by deliberate gunfire at the American and Israeli GHF killing fields.

The World Health Organisation has condemned Israel for many of its actions over the past two years, including the deliberate restrictions on the flow of food and humanitarian aid and the bombing and wanton destruction of the healthcare system in Gaza. This week, WHO has expressed its gravest concerns as Israel continues to bar Emergency Medical Teams into Gaza to assist with the hundreds of wounded and to relieve the exhausted and now starving Palestinians doctors.

Since October 2023, Israel has destroyed most of Gaza’s hospitals and clinics as well as UNRWA’s primary health clinics that provide, among other things, maternal and child healthcare as well as vaccinations. Israel has also arrested and killed hundreds of health workers. Since 18 March 2025, the WHO has recorded 56 attacks on healthcare in the Gaza Strip and both national and international health workers, including EMT staff and it has reported numerous attacks on their workplaces and accommodation. Attacks on ambulances and paramedics have been common through this war on Gaza with more than 508 aid workers reportedly killed since 2023.These blatant acts of deliberate destruction of health, property and personnel violate the Geneva Fourth Convention and international humanitarian laws and these deliberate acts constitute serious war crimes.

In all emergencies, such as in Gaza, the WHO supports EMTs, comprising specialist doctors, anaesthetists and nurses, to enter conflict zones. Since December 2023, these teams have provided more than two million medical consultations and nearly 40,000 emergency surgeries and have seen over 100,000 trauma patients in Gaza. Throughout this time, these teams have faced major challenges – including blockades on the entrance of medical supplies, denying EMT staff entry into the Gaza Strip, and serious obstacles to safe movement.

Of serious concern now, according to the WHO, is that “since 18 March 2025, denial rates (by Israel) have risen by nearly 50% with a 102 critical international EMTs comprising health professionals including surgeons and other specialised medical staff barred from entry”. This denial is severely impacting on the availability of health services and leading to more deaths in Gaza, delaying the delivery of critical specialised care and creating major barriers to life-saving care across all levels of healthcare. Doctors are receiving more than 400 patients a day and that is exhausting for already traumatised and starving doctors. The overall quality of care is further compromised by the lack of essential medicines, medical consumables and equipment.

Doctors report that they are lacking all the essential surgical consumables, so that they have to ration gauze for dressings and wound care for post-operative patients. Due to this lack of essential gauze they can only change dressings twice a week, leading to the risk of wound infections and complications.

According to a report published on 9 July by the Physicians for Human Rights and the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, the Israeli Government’s restrictions on medical supplies entering Gaza has led to preventable suffering and death. The report states: “Throughout this war, Israel’s limits on life-saving medical supplies — such as anaesthesia, gauze, sanitation materials and orthopaedic tools — have been deliberate, excessive, unclear, unpredictable, and unjustified.” Their report “ We Could Have Saved So Many More”: Anguish and Death Caused by Israel’s Restrictions on Medical Supplies in Gaza documents how Israel blocks health professionals attempting to bring essential medical supplies and deliver care in Gaza resulting in foreseeable and severe pain to children, women and men in Gaza who seek medical care. The report states that there are “amputations without anaesthesia and surgeries without scalpels. Infections remain untreated and treatable injuries transformed into terminal harm. Volunteer medical professionals face systematic Israeli policies and practices that directly prevent them from caring for the wounded and sick in Gaza”.

In addition, the hospitals in Gaza are completely overwhelmed by a surge in casualties particularly resulting from the killing fields orchestrated by the American and Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation where dozens of starving Palestinians are killed and wounded each day in a desperate “Russian roulette” for food. The Ministry of Health in Gaza stated on 2 August that the “bed occupancy rates at trauma hospitals have risen significantly: Al-Ahli Arab Hospital is at 300%, Al-Shifa Hospital at 240%, Al Rantisi Hospital at 210%, and Nasser Hospital at 180%. This situation has forced hospitals to place patients on floors and in hallways due to the lack of available bed space".

Another critical issue is the rapid decline in stored blood and blood products needed in emergency to treat the wounded and also needed in surgery. Previously, the local population was able to provide blood when it was not available from outside Gaza, but as the entire population is suffering famine with most people now having a small meal every second or third day it has become impossible to take blood from such a starving population. The lack of blood for injuries as well as for surgery can mean the difference between life and death for many patients.

While America and Israel continue with their GHF killing spree in Gaza and leaders of Western countries pronounce words that are not enough to stop this carnage, this genocide, Israel plans to completely occupy all of Gaza and the West Bank. At the same time, to their shame, member states of the UN, have not only kept their mouths shut but their pockets closed as well. Of the US$4 billion requested by the UN, only 22% has been provided to meet the most critical humanitarian needs of more than 3.3 million people needing assistance in Gaza and the West Bank. Australia has provided just US$130,000. We can give much more than this.

Humanity among nation states is indeed absent at this apocalyptic and historic time of darkness in Palestine.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.