Dangerous skin diseases add to the turmoil of war for children in Gaza

Israel’s war is wreaking a terrible toll on Gaza’s children and it’s not just bombs and bullets killing and scarring them. Forced to flee their homes, living in squalor, disease is now rampant amongst the population, including painful skin infections.

Sat in the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, central Gaza, Islam Handiya, a widow with 4 children, attempts to comfort her young son Zaid. Painful blisters mark his face as he cries out in discomfort.

“The water we use to wash the children is contaminated. There is no clean drinking water. There is no soap,” she says.

“Elsewhere people are living their lives. We are dying here. Our children are dying slowly.”

Today, the World Health Organisation hailed the first stage of a polio vaccination campaign as a success, following a resurgence of the disease in Gaza.

But there has also been a worrying spread of skin infections. The WHO says more than 150,000 cases have been recorded, including scabies and impetigo.

The vast majority of Gaza’s population has been displaced, with many now living in overcrowded shelters or tents. Even the hospital is infected with cockroaches, patients complain.

Nowhere near enough food or medical aid is getting through.

Israel denies using food and medical aid as a weapon of war which would be a war crime.

In a photo from before the conflict began, 5-year-old Maryam beams a smile in a bright red dress. Now her fragile body is covered in scabs and sores. She’s suffering from suspected severe psoriasis, aggravated by the dire conditions in Gaza.

Dr Sanah Ali is a paediatrician from Birmingham, UK. She’s part of Children Not Numbers, an NGO offering remote advice to medics in Gaza who are treating Maryam and other children, and attempting to help evacuate them.

Though for now it’s practically impossible for anyone to leave – even sick children.

Maryam’s condition is extremely painful and is distressing to even witness as she attempts to itch her wounds, but Dr Ali says there are simple treatments that would make a huge difference.

“What she would get in the UK that she’s not getting there is access to clean water and sanitation. She would be getting specialist wraps and bandages to help with her sores. She would be getting emollients, antibiotics for any areas that are infected.”

But at the moment Dr Ali says, even getting hold of something as basic as paracetamol is difficult and highly expensive.

Back in Gaza, Dina Al-Mubayyid cooks what little food her family can afford on a fire fuelled by leftover plastic, crouched outside their tent. Her young son, Faez, is recovering from a skin infection that has left his fragile body ridden with pockmarks.

“I cannot endure what is happening to my son,” she says. “I cried a lot for him because he suffered so much. There are so many sores on his body, he smelled like a corpse. Flies would not leave him alone unless I brushed them away.”

A photo of Faez, taken the day before the war began, shows a happy child drinking a juice. An old life that seems impossible to return to.

“All I wish for is for my son to regain his health and for me to live in a clean place again,” Dina laments.