Israel's Blockade Means Gaza's Hospitals Cannot Provide Food to Recovering Patients

Sobhi al-Bursh, who was injured in a bombing and lost his foot, is fed beans brought from home by his father, Mohamed, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Sobhi al-Bursh, who was injured in a bombing and lost his foot, is fed beans brought from home by his father, Mohamed, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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Israel's Blockade Means Gaza's Hospitals Cannot Provide Food to Recovering Patients

Sobhi al-Bursh, who was injured in a bombing and lost his foot, is fed beans brought from home by his father, Mohamed, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Sobhi al-Bursh, who was injured in a bombing and lost his foot, is fed beans brought from home by his father, Mohamed, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

It cost a fortune, she said, but Asmaa Fayez managed to buy a few zucchinis in a Gaza market. She cooked them with rice and brought it to her 4-year-old son, who has been in the hospital for the past week. The soup was his only meal of the day, and he asked for more.

“It’s all finished, darling,” Fayez replied softly. Still, it was an improvement from the canned beans and tuna she brings on other days, she said.

Hospital patients are among the most vulnerable as Palestinians across Gaza struggle to feed themselves, with Israel's blockade on food and other supplies entering the territory now in its third month.

With hospitals unable to provide food, families must bring whatever they can find for loved ones.

“Most, if not all, wounded patients have lost weight, especially in the past two months,” Dr. Khaled Alserr, a general surgeon at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, told The Associated Press. Nutritional supplements for intensive care unit patients are lacking, he said.

“Our hands are tied when it comes to making the best choice for patients. Choices are limited,” he said.

Hunger worsens as supplies dwindle

Malnutrition is on the rise across Gaza, aid groups say. Thousands of children have been found with acute malnutrition in the past month, but adults as well are not getting proper nutrients, according to the UN. It estimates that 16,000 pregnant women and new mothers this year face acute malnutrition.

Since Israel’s blockade began on March 2, food sources have been drying up. Aid groups have stopped food distribution. Bakeries have closed. Charity kitchens handing out bowls of pasta or lentils remain the last lifeline for most of the population, but they are rapidly closing for lack of supplies, the UN says.

Markets are empty of almost everything but canned goods and small amounts of vegetables, and prices have been rising. Local production of vegetables has plummeted because Israeli forces have damaged 80% of Gaza's farmlands, the UN says, and much of the rest is inaccessible inside newly declared military zones.

Fayez’s son, Ali al-Dbary, was admitted to Nasser Hospital because of a blocked intestine, suffering from severe cramps and unable to use the bathroom. Fayez believes it’s because he has been eating little but canned goods. She splurged on the zucchini, which now costs around $10 a kilogram (2.2 pounds). Before the war it was less than a dollar.

Doctors said the hospital doesn’t have a functioning scanner to diagnose her son and decide whether he needs surgery.

Israel says it imposed the blockade and resumed its military campaign in March to pressure Hamas to release its remaining hostages and disarm.

Hamas ignited the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostage, most of whom have been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israel's offensive has killed over 52,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants.

Concern over Israeli plans to control aid Israeli officials have asserted that enough food entered Gaza during a two-month ceasefire earlier this year. Rights groups have disputed that and called the blockade a “starvation tactic” and a potential war crime.

Now Israeli plans to control aid distribution in Gaza, using private contractors to distribute supplies. The UN and aid groups have rejected the idea, saying it could restrict who is eligible to give and receive aid and could force large numbers of Palestinians to move — which would violate international law.

Those under care at hospitals, and their families who scrounge to feed them, would face further challenges under Israel's proposal. Moving to reach aid could be out of the question.

Another patient at Nasser Hospital, 19-year-old Asmaa Faraj, had shrapnel in her chest from an airstrike that hit close to her tent and a nearby charity kitchen in camps for displaced people outside Khan Younis.

When the AP visited, the only food she had was a small bag of dates, a date cookie and some water bottles. Her sister brought her some pickles.

“People used to bring fruits as a gift when they visited sick people in hospitals,” said the sister, Salwa Faraj. “Today, we have bottles of water.”

She said her sister needs protein, fruits and vegetables but none are available.

Mohammed al-Bursh managed to find a few cans of tuna and beans to bring for his 30-year-old son, Sobhi, who was wounded in an airstrike three months ago. Sobhi’s left foot was amputated, and he has two shattered vertebrae in his neck.

Al-Bursh gently gave his son spoonfuls of beans as he lay still in the hospital bed, a brace on his neck.

“Everything is expensive,” Sobhi al-Bursh said, gritting with pain that he says is constant. He said he limits what he eats to help save his father money.

He believes that his body needs meat to heal. “It has been three months, and nothing heals,” he said.



Thomas Barrack: Syria’s Joining Abraham Accords ‘Could Take Time’

HANDOUT - 19 June 2025, Lebanon, Beirut: US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack speaks during a press conference in Beirut. Photo: Hassan Ibrahim/Lebanese Parliament/dpa
HANDOUT - 19 June 2025, Lebanon, Beirut: US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack speaks during a press conference in Beirut. Photo: Hassan Ibrahim/Lebanese Parliament/dpa
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Thomas Barrack: Syria’s Joining Abraham Accords ‘Could Take Time’

HANDOUT - 19 June 2025, Lebanon, Beirut: US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack speaks during a press conference in Beirut. Photo: Hassan Ibrahim/Lebanese Parliament/dpa
HANDOUT - 19 June 2025, Lebanon, Beirut: US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack speaks during a press conference in Beirut. Photo: Hassan Ibrahim/Lebanese Parliament/dpa

Syria and Israel are engaged in “meaningful” talks through the United States that aim to restore calm along their border, according to Thomas Barrack, US President Donald Trump’s envoy to Syria.

Barrack said in an interview with The New York Times on Thursday that the administration wanted Syria to join the Abraham Accords, but “this could take time” because Syria’s new President Ahmed al-Sharaa could face resistance at home.

“He cannot be seen by his own people to be forced or coerced into the Abraham Accords,” Barrack said. “So he has to work slowly.”

Trump tapped Barrack, an old friend and private equity investor, to help realize his vision for the Middle East, which the administration hopes will foster less conflict and more prosperity.

Trump made clear during his Mideast visit in May that lucrative business deals in sectors including arms and artificial intelligence were his priority, and his decision to bomb nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran last month showed his support for Israel and willingness to use force against American foes.

Barrack called the US administration’s approach a departure from previous “failed” American attempts at “nation building” and from past efforts to shape how other governments rule.

Much of Barrack’s work has focused on pushing Syria and Lebanon, both recovering from destructive wars, toward solving their own problems while rallying support from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and other regional partners.

It is unclear whether Trump’s focus on prioritizing economic development over vocal support for democracy will fare better than the efforts of previous administrations to address some of the Middle East’s most bedeviling problems, according to The New York Times.

Barrack, in his first diplomatic job at age 78, has been working his relationships with heads of state and other power brokers. He said that having a direct line to the White House and to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the fact that the administration had “little patience for the region’s resistance to helping itself,” had helped.

Much of Barrack’s effort has focused on Syria, where the fledgling government of al-Sharaa is trying to rebuild the country after a 13-year civil war.

Trump signed an executive order this week aimed at ending decades of US sanctions on Syria.

Barrack said that instead of making strict demands, the administration had laid out objectives for the Syrian government to work toward while Washington monitored its progress.

Those indications would include finding a peaceful accommodation with Israel; integrating the US-backed, Kurdish-led militia that controls Syria’s northeast; and investigating the fates of Americans who went missing during the war.

Progress on democratization and inclusive government will not happen quickly, Barrack said, and are not part of the US criteria.

American officials have expressed concerns about the thousands of fighters who came to Syria from abroad to take part in the war, mostly as part of militant groups.

Barrack said Washington realized that Syria could not expel those who remained and that they could pose a threat to the new government if they were excluded. So the Trump administration instead expects transparency about the roles they are given.

Lifting sanctions to encourage changes worked better than keeping them in place until Syria met specific demands, Barrack said.

“It is a brilliant way to accomplish the same thing, and these roll-on, roll-off sanctions have never worked anyway,” he said.

The new Syrian government’s relations have been tense with Israel, whose military has moved into southern Syria and often carried out operations there. The talks aim to quiet the conflict along the border while laying the groundwork for better relations.