UK doctor reveals 80% of Gaza victims she treated were under 16

A UK doctor who recently returned from working in the Gaza Strip has expressed concern over the alarmingly high number of children being killed by Israel in the enclave.

Dr Victoria Rose, who worked at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, said that 80 percent of the victims she treated were under the age of 16.

"I think what shocked me the most this time was the number of children that I saw and in fact operated on. When I was at the European Gaza hospital in March, it was a lot of children then, but now in August, I would say that 80% of everyone I treated was under the age of 16," Dr Rose told Al Jazeera.

During her two-week stint at the European Gaza hospital near Khan Younis, she witnessed an increase in children suffering severe injuries.

"The sort of things that I was mainly treating were third-degree burns, I saw a lot of lower limb trauma, children losing legs, losing arms. We had a couple of upper arm amputees, a lot of facial injuries," she described.

The surgeon shared heart-wrenching examples of the cases she treated, including a seven-year-old boy who had "most of his nose blown off and a big hole in his lip" and a girl who "had lost quite a lot of her skin down to the bone on her forehead."

Israel's military offensives in Gaza since Oct 7 have resulted in devastating losses, with over 40,000 Palestinians killed, including 16,456 children and 11,000 women.

The United Nations (UN) reported that two-thirds of buildings across the Gaza Strip have been "damaged or destroyed." Israeli attacks have also killed at least 270 aid workers.

The restrictions on food, water, medicine, and fuel supplies have exacerbated the situation in Gaza.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) directed Israel to ensure basic services and humanitarian aid delivery in the besieged enclave.

The Palestinian government's information office reported that almost 1.7 million Gazans have been displaced due to relentless air and artillery strikes by the Israeli military.

Thousands of children in Gaza have been diagnosed with malnutrition, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). 

“A significant proportion of Gaza’s population is now facing catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom said on June 12 while talking to reporters.

Earlier, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) head Cindy McCain said people in Gaza are starving to death.

"The speed at which this man-made hunger and malnutrition crisis has ripped through Gaza is terrifying,” he added.

“To have 50 percent of an entire population in catastrophic, near-famine levels, is unprecedented,” Beth Bechdol, the deputy director general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), said.

The WFP estimated that around 1.1 million people are "struggling with catastrophic hunger and starvation" due to Israel's severe restrictions on food, water, medicine, and fuel supplies to the besieged enclave.