In a small hospital ward in Gaza City, six-year-old Mohammed Salah Qasem lies motionless in bed, his frail frame wrapped in a thin blanket. At a severely reduced body weight, he is fighting a battle for survival on two fronts: a rare genetic illness and the forced starvation gripping the people of Gaza.
Mohammed was born with mitochondrial disease, a rare inherited condition that attacks the body’s nervous system and muscles. Before the war, diligent medical care kept him stable; he could sit upright, attend regular physiotherapy sessions, and manage his symptoms with six or seven daily medications. His diet was rich in fresh fruits, vegetables, and meat, which provided nutrients that helped him maintain his strength. But all of that changed when the war began in October 2023.
After being displaced from Ard al-Shanti in northwest Gaza to the Sheikh Radwan area of Gaza City earlier this year, Mohammed’s family suddenly found themselves cut off from access to the medicines and food that their son depended on. Even before the conflict, his father, Sallahdine Qasem, had to order some of his less widely accessible medications from Egypt. Now, with Gaza’s borders sealed and supplies scarce, they are impossible to find.
Without treatment, Mohammed’s condition has deteriorated rapidly. “He hasn’t taken his nerve medicine in over a year,” Sallahdine explains. “At night, the seizures don’t stop. He can’t sleep, and neither can we.” What’s more, the oats and vegetables central to his restricted diet have vanished from the markets, and his body rejects the limited food options available to them. Bread—the cheapest option—worsens his digestive problems. “He throws up everything he eats,” his father says.
Sallahdine Qasem
Six-year-old Mohammed Salah Qasem in the hospital.
Even if Mohammed’s family could regain access to his medication, finding doctors who can provide him with essential medical care would remain a struggle, as the number of operational health facilities continues to dwindle. Amid sieges, violent conflict, and evacuation, seventeen of Gaza’s thirty-six hospitals have been forced to suspend medical care. Even the operational hospitals are suffering, with 94 percent of hospitals on the Gaza Strip facing damage or destruction due to targeted attacks by Israeli forces.
In al-Rantisi Hospital, the children’s hospital in Gaza City where Mohammed and his parents have stayed since late June, there were no beds or medication available, including pain relief drugs and first aid kits. For days, Mohammed and his mother slept on the floor. The boy is weak and increasingly withdrawn, unable to engage with other people except members of his family. His father says his hair is beginning to fall out—a symptom of severe malnutrition. Mohammed’s battle against malnutrition is far from unusual: According to the United Nations, more than 100 children have died in Gaza due to malnutrition or hunger since October 2023, and nearly one in five children under the age of five in Gaza City is acutely malnourished.
Less than a year ago, Mohammed’s family had reason for hope. In October 2024, he received approval from the Gaza Health Ministry in coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO) to receive treatment abroad. The following month, WHO contacted the family, requesting his medical documents and promising to arrange his transfer to a hospital abroad equipped to treat his condition. But the family stopped hearing from WHO months ago.
“I contacted them again and again,” Sallahdine says. “Even the [WHO] doctors who saw him [before the war began] have stopped replying. I feel helpless.”
Mohammed, who by now would have completed at least two years of primary education if not for the war, has never been to school. At an age when he should be learning to read and write, he lies in a hospital bed, unable to sit upright, often crying in pain.
His father’s plea is simple and urgent: “Mohammed needs to be treated abroad as soon as possible. If not, we are going to lose him.”
For now, the family waits, trapped in a war zone, watching their son fade while the world looks away.