Baby Sibal returns to Gaza hospital after treatment in Jordan

A one-year-old Palestinian girl evacuated from Gaza with severe nutritional problems has returned to the region’s hospital after returning from Jordan. The BBC has been following the story of Siwar Ashour for several months, who was deported to Gaza on 3 December after completing treatment in Amman.

She spent six months in a hospital there under a medical evacuation plan implemented by the Kingdom of Jordan. Her grandmother, Sahar Ashour, said she fell ill three days after her return.

“She started having diarrhea and vomiting and it was getting worse. The diarrhea wouldn’t go away,” she told a freelance journalist working for the BBC in Gaza. Israel has banned independent access to Gaza for international journalists since the war began nearly two years ago.

Sibal is being treated at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza Strip, with Dr Khalil Daklan telling the BBC that she “is receiving the necessary treatment, but the situation is still very bad for her”. Doctors said Sibal was suffering from a gastrointestinal infection. Her immune system is defective, making it difficult for her to fight germs. She also has difficulty absorbing nutrients, which means she needs specialized infant formula.

Gaza’s hospitals – many of which were severely damaged by Israeli bombing and nearby fighting with Hamas before a ceasefire came into effect in October – have seen an increase in the number of children being admitted, Dr Dachlan said. Destruction of critical infrastructure has led to poor sanitation, leading to the spread of infection and disease.

“Since the ceasefire was announced, the number of pediatric patients arriving at hospitals in the Gaza Strip has tripled their capacity…The situation at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital is no different from other hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

“There is a critical shortage of medicines and medical supplies, and there is a critical shortage of generators, the arteries that keep hospitals running.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) said humanitarian needs in Gaza are “alarming and current aid only meets the most basic survival needs”.

Siwar was evacuated to Jordan in June after the BBC reported his case and raised it directly with Jordanian authorities.

Dr. Mohammed Momani, Jordan’s Minister of Communications, told CNN that Sibal was one of 45 children who returned to Gaza after completing treatment. According to the evacuation plan, all patients will be sent back after receiving treatment.

I expressed to Dr. Momani that it might be difficult to accept the return of such a vulnerable child to Gaza under the current circumstances.

“No patient is sent back before completing treatment… The first reason (why they are sent back) is that it will allow us to bring more patients from Gaza. We cannot receive all patients at once. We have to receive them in batches. We have received 18 batches so far.”

“The second reason is that we don’t want to cause Palestinian displacement in any form and all patients are informed… that after treatment you will be sent back so that other patients and other children can be brought in for treatment.”

Jordan also treats war casualties in field hospitals in Gaza and provides aid via airdrops and road convoys. The kingdom hosts more than 2 million Palestinian refugees who have fled the conflict with Israel since 1948, as well as 500,000 refugees from other countries, mostly Syrians.

Some 300 sick and injured children and 730 parents and guardians have been flown to Jordan since March last year, out of 2,000 planned for treatment. Other countries in the region, such as the United Arab Emirates and Türkiye, have treated thousands of sick civilians from Gaza.

During the ongoing conflict, the specialized milk formula needed in Siwar is either unavailable or in very short supply. In March, Israel imposed a full blockade on aid to Gaza, which was partially lifted 11 weeks later. Aid deliveries have surged since the ceasefire, although the United Nations and aid agencies say humanitarian supplies are insufficient.

Jordanian authorities provided Siwar’s family with 12 cans of hypoallergenic Neocate formula when they traveled to Gaza. However, her mother Najwa told us that Israeli officials confiscated most of the items they received – nine of their 12 cans were taken.

“They told us, ‘No more than these cans,'” said Sibal’s mother, Najwa Ashour. “Even though it was therapeutic milk and they said it was therapeutic, they still took it.”

She also said extra clothes they had been given in Jordan were taken away. “They searched us from top to bottom. When they saw us with our clothes on (layered), they refused to let us out and told us, ‘You have to take off all your clothes except one.'”

I asked the Israeli government why the milk powder and clothes were confiscated. They responded that there were restrictions on what could be recovered due to “security concerns.”

They said only minimal luggage was allowed and this was communicated to the Jordanian authorities and the family returning home. “If the baggage exceeds the approved limit, entry will be denied.”

The World Health Organization has called on more countries to provide medical evacuations for patients who cannot get necessary treatment in Gaza.

It also called on the Israeli government to allow patients to receive treatment in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank “as the most time-efficient and cost-effective route.” Israel stopped allowing such evacuations after an Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel killed about 1,200 people and abducted 251 to Gaza.

Sibal’s family has been drinking Neocate formula since returning to Gaza. There are also donations, including funds raised through an online appeal. Jordan’s representative in Gaza also visited the family and offered assistance.

The Ashurs are trying to get Sibal evacuated again – a process that has begun with Palestinian health officials issuing permits. It will be run by the World Health Organization, which will handle all evacuation requests from what the United Nations calls a “wasteland.”

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