Patients die in Gaza waiting for medical evacuations Israel keeps blocking

Khan Younis, Gaza Strip – Fifteen-year-old Rafa al-Qudra had one hope in life: to get out of the Gaza Strip in time to save her sight. On Saturday, before Israel gave her that permission , everything turned pitch black. Sitting in an open-sided shelter covered in thick nylon in the al-Mawasi coastal area in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis governorate, Rafa continuously pressed her hands over her eyes, either to block the light she can no longer see but still burns her eyes or to hide her falling tears. Recommended Stories list of 3 items end of list “Is this it for me? Will I ever see again? Will I read again? Write? Draw? Or be able to walk around this tent without someone’s help?” asked the tearful teenager, the skin around whose eyes was reddened by the constant pressing of her hands. Her father, Rafat, 57, explained that Rafa’s condition was manageable before the war with glasses and check-ups. “What followed compounded everything: months of displacement, carrying luggage she was medically prohibited from carrying, malnutrition, dust and the collapse of specialist care,” the father of five said helplessly. In recent months, Rafa’s eye pressure – measured in millimetres of mercury (mmHg), the standard medical unit for pressure – built up: 50mmHg in Rafa’s right eye and 35mmHg in her left, compared with a normal range of 12 to 20mmHg, leaving her in unbearable pain. …