Gaza medics describe struggle to provide care in war zone where 'everything is lacking'

Medics working for the Palestine Red Crescent Society have shared harrowing accounts of their daily efforts to provide healthcare in a war zone where "everything is lacking". Nurse Mirna Kalab and Dr Iman Moein Abu Ward, both 28, have been repeatedly displaced with their families during almost two years of relentless conflict in Gaza. They spoke out as the British Red Cross warned that the "trickle of aid reaching Gaza is nowhere near enough to address the scale of suffering".

Mirna starts every day with a prayer before heading to work, where she regularly treats the victims of bombings. She said: "The injuries are extremely severe; we receive patients in critical condition with very serious wounds. Our resources are very limited. There is a shortage of supplies, everything is lacking. Despite the limited resources, we do our utmost to help the injured and save their lives. But the situation is extremely difficult."

Mirna, who graduated from Gaza's Islamic University with a qualification in general nursing, also deals with patients suffering from "all kinds of illnesses".

Around 90% of Gaza's population is thought to have been forced to flee their homes during the war, with around 2.1 millions still displaced. Diseases are spreading easily due to the crowded and unhygienic environments where hundreds of thousands are now living.

Mirna has moved multiple times with her mother, father and siblings, traveling from Khan Younis to Rafah and back depending on where seemed safest.

She now lives in a tent in Al-Mawasi where "it's very difficult to bring water or get food". "Going to work or to get anything we need is a daily struggle and great hardship," she said.

Reflecting on her once "safe and stable" life, Mirna added: "It's nothing like now, we are displaced, far from home, living in a tent away from our relatives.

"This war has affected my mental health and my family's. We've been displaced multiple times, moving from one tent to another. If the opportunity arises to return and the house is still there, I will return, God willing.

"We hope for peace and safety to prevail in Gaza. If we still have a home and the means to continue our education and life we will stay in Gaza. But if things remain difficult, we may travel abroad."

Dr Iman has similarly seen her family tossed from one location to another as they tried to escape the worst of the conflict.

The eldest daughter in a family of seven girls and two boys, she works as an emergency doctor at the Red Crescent-affiliated Al-Saraya field hospital.

Dr Iman started working with the Red Crescent in April and found her role "allowed me to be a part of alleviating people's suffering and to be part of this amazing team".

She explained: "We share the same circumstances, the same pain, and the same hopes. It created a supportive environment where we give each other emotional and psychological support.

"I deal with all kinds of critical injuries. I handle people who have been killed, grieving families, the process of informing them about their children's deaths, and how to absorb their shock and anger.

"How to calm them, how to respond quickly and save the lives of those arriving injured. I also handle paediatric cases and outpatient clinic cases.

"We are currently facing a problem, as most injuries are to limbs or brain injuries, and their outcomes are often severe."

A famine was declared by the IPC in the Gaza Governorate, which includes Gaza City, on the 22nd August 2025. Some 2.1 million people are facing extreme hunger and an estimated 470,000 are on the brink of mass starvation.

The British Red Cross is warning that the horrific toll of malnutrition can have long-lasting effects for children, including stunted growth and impaired brain development.

Only 12 out of Gaza's 29 hospitals are still functioning and many of those remaining have seen their ability to provide care severely limited by lack of resources.

Dr Iman said broken machinery often caused delays to surgeries and other vital treatment. She added: "There is only one CT scan machine in Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in northern Gaza serving all the patients and sometimes delays occur.

"We face fear and a large number of cases that exceed the medical staff's capacity to handle. A lack of resources, lack of equipment. We need more medicines. Patients request types of medicine that we severely lack."

Dr Iman's family chose to remain in northern Gaza, where she says they experienced "extreme fear, hunger, and displacement"

She added: "We left our house on October 11, 2023, the fourth day of the war. We went to the middle of Jabalia Camp, then to Sheikh Radwan, then back to Jabalia, and then to the beach area.

"We moved back and forth between the beach, Sheikh Radwan, and Jabalia Camp around twenty times. Our house was completely destroyed, and we are currently living in a rented apartment. God willing, if a truce happens, we plan to return, rebuild it, and settle there again."

Dr Iman said she hopes for an end to the war so education can resume and people can return home and rebuild their lives.

She added: "The most beautiful moments are when I sit and remember how our house used to be, large with a rooftop garden and a variety of fruit. I long for those days."

Jennifer Higgins, the British Red Cross's country representative for occupied Palestinian territories, said: "Aid must urgently flow safely and unimpeded. Medical and humanitarian workers must be protected. And all remaining hostages must be released, unconditionally.

"We must act now - not just to ease suffering in the present, but to protect Gaza's future. The choices we make today will shape the lives of generations to come."

The trickle of aid reaching Gaza is nowhere enough to address the scale of suffering currently felt.

We are being told by our colleagues at the Palestine Red Crescent that emergency rooms are being overwhelmed with people of all ages, arriving in states of extreme exhaustion, weakness, and physical collapse.

Healthcare workers are doing their utmost to help, even as many of them are battling hunger themselves.

The crisis in Gaza is not only a current emergency - it is a generational disaster in the making.

Malnutrition is taking a silent but devastating toll on the most vulnerable. In children, chronic undernourishment, especially during the first 1000 days, leads to stunted growth, impaired brain development, weakened immune systems, and lifelong health complications.

These effects are not always temporary. They can be irreversible.

Without immediate and sustained support, this crisis will echo far into the future. An entire generation potentially risks being defined by the hunger and subsequent underdevelopment.

The scale of need is immense - and the aid reaching Gaza is nowhere near enough.

There are also other dangers in how we respond to this crisis. Feeding people too quickly after prolonged and severe malnutrition can be fatal.

Uncontrolled food aid drops or the provision of food without proper oversight and nutritional support can cause serious harm to individuals suffering from malnutrition.

Feeding people too quickly after prolonged malnutrition can be deadly, triggering refeeding syndrome - a dangerous metabolic reaction that can cause heart failure, seizures, or respiratory collapse.

To truly save lives, every food intervention must be paired with nutrition specialists, medical monitoring, and treatment centres equipped to manage severe malnutrition safely.

- Naziha El Moussaoui is the British Red Cross's food security and nutrition advisor