I joined a camera crew and producer shooting footage for a first-person interview on the Israeli siege on Gaza. The interviewee was Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj, head of the Palestinian International Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza, a coalition of organizations and individuals set out to do just that. We met with Dr. Sarraj at his office and booked him for the day. Based on his humanitarian activism with the campaign, Dr. Sarraj would determine which areas were most pressing in terms of the crisis in Gaza, and therefore deserved priority over other aspects during the short interview. Dr. Sarraj confirmed what the producer and the rest of the crew had already mentioned -- when it came to crisis in Gaza, the health sector and the economic sector were at the top of the list. It was decided we would visit a couple of hospitals and a factory to shoot the right footage. This is where the cameraman started taping and didn't stop till the end of the day.

I cringed as I walked into al-Shifa hospital for the first time. Gaza City's largest hospital, al-Shifa provides treatment for critical cases from all over Gaza, in addition to being the primary hospital for non-critical cases. That day the hospital was overflowing with the ailing, the wounded and the dying. We were lead to just one of over 1,500 patients who were denied permission to leave Gaza despite suffering conditions that threatened to be terminal or at best, permanently debilitating. A doctor explained that a 19-year-old young man with a drawn face propped up on a pillow, was at risk of having both legs amputated unless he was able to have a complicated medical procedure performed within the next few days, a procedure that is not available in Gaza. Upon further inquiry, we were informed by the young man's mother that her son had been shot several times by Israeli soldiers.

A short walk to the dialysis unit revealed ten machines gathering dust in the corridor. We were informed that the lack of spare parts, disposable items such as needles, and medicines for dialysis patients prevented them from being able to operate the life-saving machines. Furthermore, both hospitals and pharmacies in Gaza have run out of 92 out of about 400 types of essential medicines used to treat other illnesses.

At the Children's Hospital in the Nasser area of Gaza City, the doctor lead us straight to the infant care unit where several incubators were occupied and others lay unused in a corner. We peered at the unnaturally small newborns struggling for each breath. The food crisis in Gaza has lead struggling undernourished mothers to give birth to unhealthy babies. It dawned on me that despite the gravity of the medical crisis, the inadequacy or shortage of medical equipment bore no comparison to the lack of the most important human need of all: food.

Read More