ISRAELI OCCUPIED GAZA, 20 August. - (ANA)- The young boy was still in diapers when Dr Mimi Syed began cutting away what remained of his leg.

 

There was no anaesthetic. No pain medication. No proper surgical equipment. A nurse stood beside the child, trying to comfort him as Syed, an American emergency medicine physician volunteering in Gaza, used a pair of trauma shears from her own medical bag to amputate the badly injured limb.

 

"I cut it off with my own scissors in my bag," Syed told The New Arab, recalling the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on the al-Mawasi area of Rafah in southern Gaza in 2024.

 

"That child also had no pain medication, no sedation, none whatsoever," she said. "The nurse that was there was essentially just consoling him while I was trying to cut that piece of leg off that was bleeding."

 

Under ordinary circumstances, such a procedure would take place in an operating theatre, with anaesthesia, specialist equipment and a surgical team. But after months of relentless Israeli attacks devastated Gaza's healthcare system and restrictions choked the supply of medicines and medical equipment, Syed said doctors were being forced to improvise.

 

"The child was completely dissociated," she recalled. "You can see him looking up, and we were trying to support his breathing with a bag mask valve and intubation, trying to prepare him for the operating theatre."

 

The boy's experience was extreme, but doctors and humanitarian workers who have worked in Gaza say it reflects a broader medical crisis in which children are undergoing amputations and other painful procedures without adequate anaesthesia or pain relief.

 

US doctor Mark Perlmutter has recalled watching an anaesthetist sing to a five-year-old girl as her leg was amputated because adequate pain medication was unavailable.

 

Children's entertainer and activist Ms. Rachel has also described mothers playing her videos for their children during medical procedures in an attempt to distract and comfort them.

 

For Syed, even that option was often unavailable because of limited internet access. She remembers another patient, badly burned following an Israeli attack, quietly humming a lullaby to herself as doctors treated her wounds.

 

"We had no pain medications to give her, we didn't have anything to sedate her with," Syed said. "Burns are so painful that she was dissociated, and she was trying to console herself by humming to herself."

 

 

 

 

Such scenes have become part of daily medical care in a health system starved of basic supplies.

 

Humanitarian organisations warn that Israeli restrictions on aid entering Gaza continue to prevent or delay medicines, equipment and other essential supplies, leaving Palestinian medical workers and international volunteers to treat severe injuries with increasingly limited resources.

 

"The fact that children are still having to undergo life-changing amputations without adequate access to ongoing pain relief is a devastating illustration of Gaza's man-made medical catastrophe," Fikr Shalltoot, Gaza director at Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), told The New Arab.

 

"Despite the 'ceasefire' agreement and the immense humanitarian need in Gaza, our local teams continue to witness essential medical and humanitarian supplies being restricted and delayed from entering by Israeli authorities."

 

Painkillers and prosthetic limbs are among the essential items in short supply, Shalltoot said, while specialist medical workers have also struggled to gain access to the enclave.

 

That has left Gaza's doctors performing emergency procedures with whatever equipment they can find and caring for the survivors long after their initial injuries.

 

For children who have undergone amputations, the consequences can last a lifetime.

 

"Children who have lost limbs currently have no access to any form of specialised paediatric rehabilitation services in Gaza," Shalltoot said.

 

The absence of prosthetics and rehabilitation means an amputation is not simply an emergency operation. Children must also contend with prolonged pain and disability without the specialist services normally required to help them recover and adapt.

 

"No child should have to endure such unbearable pain, fear and trauma, and no healthcare worker should be forced to provide treatment without the medicines, equipment and support they need," Shalltoot added.

 

 

 

 

The shortages extend far beyond operating theatres.

 

Save the Children staff member Shurouq said Israeli restrictions, including the designation of essential supplies as "dual-use" items that Israel says could also have military applications, were disrupting humanitarian operations across Gaza.

 

"Israeli restrictions, including the classification of essential items as 'dual-use', continue to severely constrain supplies of fuel, engine oil and spare parts, further crippling humanitarian operations," Shurouq told The New Arab.

 

Without those supplies, humanitarian organisations struggle to keep vehicles, generators and other essential machinery operating.

 

"Without these basic supplies, vehicles, generators and essential equipment cannot be properly operated or maintained," she said, adding that the effects stretch from hospitals and health services to water pumping, sanitation and waste management.

 

The restrictions also hamper aid workers' ability to reach Palestinian families with lifesaving assistance, she said.   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/20 August 2026 - - -