In Rafah I saw new graveyards fill with children. It is unimaginable that worse could be yet to come

he war against Gaza’s children is forcing many to close their eyes. Nine-year-old Mohamed’s eyes were forced shut, first by the bandages that covered a gaping hole in the back of his head, and second by the coma caused by the blast that hit his family home. He is nine. Sorry, heOver three visits to the European hospital’s ICU in Rafah, Gaza, I saw multiple children occupy the same bed. Each one arriving after a bomb had ripped through their home. Each one dying despite doctors’ immense efforts.

Water is in desperately short supply, not just for drinking but sanitation. In Rafah there is approximately one toilet for every 850 people. The situation is four times worse for showers. That is, around one shower for every 3,500 people. Try to imagine, as a teenage girl, or elderly man, or pregnant woman, queueing for an entire day just to have a shower.

Rafah is home to what is now Gaza’s largest remaining hospital – the “European hospital”– named as such to honour the European Union that paid for its construction. When I visited in April, a paediatric surgeon, Dr Ghaben, was hunched over another little boy, Mahmmoud. He had massive head trauma from a bomb that had hit his family home. “What did this little boy do?” the doctor asked, a tear forming in his eye. Dr Ghaben was 30 hours into his 36-hour shift.

On 31 October, Unicef called Gaza a graveyard for children. Last month I saw new graveyards in Rafah being constructed. And filled. Every day the war brings more violent death and destruction. In my 20 years with the, I have never seen devastation like that I saw in the Gaza Strip cities of Khan Younis and Gaza City. And now we are told to expect the same via an incursion in Rafah.

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