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."



In Iraq's Summer, Residents of Kurdistan's Erbil Ache for Water

Boys cool off with water from a mobile tanker as summer temperatures soar in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region © Safin HAMID / AFP
Boys cool off with water from a mobile tanker as summer temperatures soar in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region © Safin HAMID / AFP
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In Iraq's Summer, Residents of Kurdistan's Erbil Ache for Water

Boys cool off with water from a mobile tanker as summer temperatures soar in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region © Safin HAMID / AFP
Boys cool off with water from a mobile tanker as summer temperatures soar in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region © Safin HAMID / AFP

The taps have run dry, and the wells are almost empty. In the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, 80-year-old Babir hasn't bathed in weeks and impatiently waits for trucked-in water deliveries.

"There is nothing worse than not having water," said Babir, who gave only his first name, in his modest house in Erbil's Darto suburb.

As in several other densely populated areas of Erbil and its suburbs, Babir and his neighbours rely on groundwater as their primary water source.

But for years, they have dreaded summer, when relentless drought, a lack of wells and power outages that bring pumps to a halt leave them cut off the supply of water.

Usually "we bathe once every fortnight," said Babir, dressed in traditional Kurdish sarwal trousers.

From the roof of his house, he shouted for a water truck as it drove up into the street, then hurried downstairs to request a refill for his home.

This time, the truck belonged to a local aid group. When such assistance is unavailable, the retiree has to pay from his meagre pension or rely on family for water and other essentials.

Over the years, residents of several districts have taken to the streets many times to demand solutions, but Babir said appeals to officials had fallen on deaf ears. He said he was considering moving "to a place with water."

-Dried wells

Iraq is known in Arabic as the Land of the Two Rivers, referring to the once mighty Tigris and Euphrates. But the rivers' water levels have plummeted and the UN classifies the country as one of the most impacted by some effects of climate change.

Authorities blame the drought as well as dams built upstream in neighbouring Türkiye and Iran.

Erbil relies on 1,240 wells dotted across the city alongside the Ifraz water station that draws from the upper Zab River, which has its source in Turkey and joins the Tigris in Iraq.

Its governor, Omed Khoshnaw, told reporters earlier this month that "more than 25 percent of wells have dried up this year," adding that Erbil should rely less on groundwater.

Amid the crisis, the city's local authorities say they have allocated 1.5 billion Iraqi dinars ($1.1 million) to help solve it, including by digging new wells and providing power via generators and the electricity grid.

Local official Nabz Abdul Hamid said that power outages have heavily impacted pumps for wells in residential areas.

"We have now provided an uninterrupted electricity supply to most of the wells," he told AFP, adding that officials were working to fix the broader problem including by improving the Ifraz plant supply.

- 'Radical solutions'

In the Darto district, one person skillfully manoeuvred the aid truck's hose as a torrent of water gushed into a tank.

A young girl waited to fill plastic bottles while other children joyfully splashed water on their faces, finding relief from the relentless heat.

But when it comes to washing, Surur Mohamad, 49, said that for anything more than basic clothes he goes to a nearby village where they have a steady water supply.

Trucked-in water from aid organisations "is not a solution," he said, adding that overcrowding has put further pressure on the water system while poor pipe infrastructure has exacerbated the problem.

"The government must find radical solutions as relying solely on wells" is no longer viable, especially considering the drought, he said.

His neighbour, Mahya Najm, said the lack of water had stopped her children and young families from visiting her.

"We cannot wash, cook or even receive guests," she said.

"We are in dire need of water. This is not a life," she added.