However, due to critical shortages amid a ban on aid supplies imposed by the Israeli authorities, the doctor is often unable to provide him with the full course of treatment he needs. As his doctor explains, "We're supposed to adhere to a strict burn protocol, providing patients like Mohammad with sufficient medication and dressings for proper at-home care. But with supplies so limited, Mohammad must come to the medical point daily for ointment application and wound care."

For over a year and a half, the children of Gaza have been deprived of education and the basic necessities of a normal childhood, constantly exposed to the threat of death. They fall asleep each night uncertain if they will awaken to news of a loved one's passing or another displacement order. Even for young children, days are consumed by the struggles of securing water, building fires for cooking and heating, and trying to find safe refuge with their families.

"I was burned while helping my grandmother," Mohammad recounts, "We were trying to build a fire to cook and heat water. We have no cooking gas, nothing at all. I search for firewood, paper, anything that burns, to help her start the fire. That's how I got hurt, and it's so painful. I come here every day, and it helps a little, but nothing really makes the pain go away."

The scarcity of medical care and essential medicines only compounds their suffering and intensifies their psychological trauma. For a child like Mohammad, whose burns receive treatment, the physical wound is only part of the ordeal; the psychological scars may last a lifetime.

Source: https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/features/medication-shortages-leave-wounded-people-without-full-care-gaza