Gaza- Leave a policy Starvation That reached its climax in Gaza StripIts effects on the elderly patients whose skins were attached to their bones from the severity of malnutrition; They met them with the chronic diseases they suffer from.
Al -Hakim Moataz Menasra, the supervisor of the elderly residing within the “Al -Wafaa Center” for their care in Gaza, did not find a choice but to legalize the remaining meals, perhaps this fragile group is sufficient for several other days.
Supervisors are afraid to follow the health status of the elderly from losing the life Long war Gaza due to hunger, bombing and fear.
Codification
Spring and confusion appears to be a pro -wise man who monitors the decline in the health of the elderly without being able to change the painful reality they live.
He says to Al -Jazeera Net, during his preoccupation with following the sick elderly: “Since the beginning of last March and we have lost more food items provided to the elderly, and although they need special care, their food is now limited to materials that contain carbohydrates only from rice, mine and soups, until some elderly people have refused to eat them because of their repetition.”
However, the medical staff supervising the elderly was forced to legalize the amount of meals, and they were devoted to each elderly loaf of bread only throughout the day after he was eating 4 loaves during the pre -starvation period, according to Al -Hakim Manasra.
The careers of the elderly also resorted to shortening the amount of meals and only serving the lentil soup in the food meal due to the lack of flour, in an attempt to avoid reaching a stage where the food available to them is completely running out.
Al -Hakim explained that the closure of the crossings did not depend on the suffering of the elderly from starvation, but rather the requirements of their personal hygiene, as it is difficult for the center to provide soap, incest, shaving blades and health diapers for the elderly.
The scarcity of health supplies that prevent the occupation forces to enter into the Gaza Strip was reflected in the cleanliness of the sick elderly, as the service staff was forced to reduce the number of times the change of health diapers for them in half, despite the consequent health effects.
He warned Manasrah against the continued closure of the crossings and the prevention of food, medicine and supplies for the elderly, because this will increase the deterioration of the health condition of the elderly elderly mainly.
The danger threatens their lives
The nursing staff spends long times to persuade the elderly to eat refined food, which most of them reject and demand a diversity as before.
Ghassan heat, the supervisor of the elderly services for Al -Jazeera Net, says that the ages of the elderly residing within the “Al -Wafa Center” and their health conditions make it difficult for them to realize the circumstances of starvation around them, and they often refuse to eat, and at all times they provide us with the provision of vegetables, meat, fruits and dairy derivatives that they previously accustomed, which increases the burdens placed on our.
The elderly woman, who has been staying in the Al -Wafa Center for years, complained of severe constipation due to the lack of fruits and vegetables, and their food is limited to legumes, which was repeated by the elderly Munawar in their conversation to Al -Jazeera Net, and she said, “We want bread, we were bored every day the same food.”
The therapeutic nutritionist at the Al -Wafa Center, Mohamed Al -Shukri, explains that there is a dietary pyramid that consists of carbohydrates that include starches and sugars, and then proteins and are completed with fats, all of which are important to human health.
Al -Shukri said in an interview with Al -Jazeera Net, “Now there is only carbohydrates inside the center, and we lack the rest of the components of the food pyramid, and this is very seriously reflected in the health of the elderly who suffer from multiple diseases, and leads to muscle weakness, and thus their inability to move little by little.”
He explained that in previous times, they were compensating for food shortages with nutritional supplements, but they no longer exist, as well as ran out of food with charitable bodies that were providing meals for the elderly.
The therapeutic nutritionist warned against reaching the stage of complete food insecurity if the famine continues, and then the elderly will reach the fifth stage of malnutrition, which could lead to their death.
They lost their lives
The Al -Wafa Center for Care of the Elderly is the only one in the Gaza Strip that provides comprehensive and overnight care for the elderly who have no male or first -class children, since 1981.
In this context, the director of the center, Dr. Fouad Najm, said, “With the start of the war on Gaza, the center was providing care for forty -three elderly, but we lost twenty -three of them during the past periods due to famine, fear and bombing.”
According to Najm, the headquarters of the center, which was located in the city of Al -Zahra, in the center of the Gaza Strip, was subjected to direct shelling in the first month of the war, which forced them to transfer the elderly with difficulty to a temporary headquarters inside the Jaffa Hospital in the city Deir Al -BalahBefore returning them to another headquarters in Gaza City.
In his speech to Al -Jazeera Net, Najm stressed that the elderly who are sponsored by the “Al -Wafa Center” live in exceptional circumstances for the loss of family and breadwinners, and they were subjected to seizures of fear, panic and crying due to the severity of the shelling, and a number of them were directly injured.
He pointed out that the Cairo circumstances that met the elderly caused more than half of them, warning of the death of more of them if the living conditions remain the same in the Gaza Strip.
It is worth noting that 620 Palestinians have died as a result of the lack of food and medicine in the sector, according to the latest statistic issued by the Ministry of Health in Gaza.