Gaza’s Girls Cut off Their Hair for Lack of Combs

 Lobna al-Azaiza, a Palestinian pediatrician providing free medical services to displaced Palestinians, examines a girl in a tent near her house, which was destroyed in an Israeli strike, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, August 12, 2024. (Reuters)
Lobna al-Azaiza, a Palestinian pediatrician providing free medical services to displaced Palestinians, examines a girl in a tent near her house, which was destroyed in an Israeli strike, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, August 12, 2024. (Reuters)
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Gaza’s Girls Cut off Their Hair for Lack of Combs

 Lobna al-Azaiza, a Palestinian pediatrician providing free medical services to displaced Palestinians, examines a girl in a tent near her house, which was destroyed in an Israeli strike, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, August 12, 2024. (Reuters)
Lobna al-Azaiza, a Palestinian pediatrician providing free medical services to displaced Palestinians, examines a girl in a tent near her house, which was destroyed in an Israeli strike, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, August 12, 2024. (Reuters)

When girls complain to Gaza pediatrician Lobna al-Azaiza that they have no comb, she tells them to cut off their hair.

It's not just combs. Israel's blockade of the territory, ravaged by 10 months of war, means there is little or no shampoo, soap, period products or household cleaning materials.

Waste collection and sewage treatment have also collapsed, and it's easy to see why contagious diseases that thrive on overcrowding and lack of cleanliness - such as scabies or fungal infections - are on the rise.

"In the past period, the most common disease we have seen was skin rashes, skin diseases, which have many causes, including the overcrowding in the camps, the increased heat inside the tents, the sweating among children, and the lack of sufficient water for bathing," the doctor said.

Azaiza used to work at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia until Israeli tanks separated the north of the besieged enclave from the south.

Like most of Gaza's medics, she has adapted and continues to treat patients, walking to work past her own ruined house, demolished by an Israeli strike.

The tent clinic she set up with a small team began by treating children, but has by necessity become a practice for whole families, most of whom have also been ordered or bombed out of their homes, like the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people.

Even the medication that is available is often unaffordable; a tube of simple burn ointment can now cost 200 shekels ($53).

International aid deliveries have been dramatically reduced since Israel seized control of the Rafah border crossing from Egypt, exacerbating a humanitarian crisis.

Israel denies responsibility for delays in getting urgent humanitarian aid in, saying that the UN and others are responsible for its distribution inside the enclave.

Azaiza has little doubt where the immediate solution lies:

"The border crossing must be opened so that we can bring in medications, as most of the current ones are ineffective: zero effect, there is no effect on the skin diseases that we see."



Lebanon’s Displaced Fear a Bleak Future

Flame and smoke rise after flare fell in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as pictured from Marjayoun, near the border with Israel, August 9, 2024. REUTERS/Karamallah Daher/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Flame and smoke rise after flare fell in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as pictured from Marjayoun, near the border with Israel, August 9, 2024. REUTERS/Karamallah Daher/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Lebanon’s Displaced Fear a Bleak Future

Flame and smoke rise after flare fell in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as pictured from Marjayoun, near the border with Israel, August 9, 2024. REUTERS/Karamallah Daher/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Flame and smoke rise after flare fell in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as pictured from Marjayoun, near the border with Israel, August 9, 2024. REUTERS/Karamallah Daher/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

Displaced in south Lebanon five times, Kamel Mroue and his wife Mariam are anxious about their next move as they follow the news of clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, fearing border hostilities will turn into all-out war.

The parents of three children, who live abroad, have been back and fourth between their village of Yohmor, just kilometers away from the frontier, and friends elsewhere around Lebanon.

“The future is dim,” said Mroue, an academic, Reuters reported.

The conflict has displaced more than 100,000 people in southern Lebanon, according to the International Organization for Migration’s Displacement Tracking Matrix.

Israel and the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah have been trading fire since the Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and ignited the war in Gaza, which shows no signs of easing.

Now in its tenth month, the conflict has spread to Lebanon where Israel has inflicted devastation in previous conflicts with Hezbollah.

- PAST DEVASTATION

The 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah killed 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers. Israeli bombardment pounded Hezbollah-controlled south Lebanon and destroyed wide areas of its stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Most of the fighting over the last 10 months has erupted on the border between Israel and Lebanon. Israel has ratcheted up tensions with assassinations of senior Hezbollah figures.

Hezbollah's response to Israeli attacks will be strong and effective, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the powerful Lebanese militant group, said earlier this month.

He was speaking in an address marking the one-week memorial of the group's top military commander Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Iran and Hezbollah have also threatened to avenge the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month, widely blamed on Israel. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack.

Lebanon's state, hollowed out by a five-year economic crisis left to fester by ruling elites, had struggled to provide basic services even before the current conflict began. The economic crisis and border conflict have taken a heavy toll. “It all affects you - your psychological state is affected to the point that I have started taking medicine to calm my nerves,” said Mariam.

While Israel houses its displaced in government-funded accommodation, Lebanon relies on ill-equipped public schools or informal arrangements, such as staying with family or friends.

Wafaa Youssef Al-Darwish sought refuge with family. Originally from the village of Dhraya near the Israeli border, she fled to stay with her sister in Tyre, a southern city that has itself been targeted by air strikes during the conflict.

“We were at our village, working normally and a war was imposed on us,” said Darwish, who used to work in agriculture, producing and selling cans of olive oil. The war deprived Lebanese of homes, neighbourhoods, and sustenance, she explained. “It's a great tragedy."