Why Medical Supplies, Not Potato Chips, Are the Real Test of Humanity
Dr Jehad Malaka is our reporter in Gaza. Your subscription and koha allow me to pay him to share stories from the genocide in Palestine. Thank you for your generosity and thank you Dr Malaka. This piece has a call to action for us and I hope you'll join in your support for Dr Malaka, Dr Awad and the many people they care for.
Feel free to skip to the comments if you read this already in your email!
In the vast landscape of destruction that Gaza has endured, remaining steadfast is not merely a professional obligation, it's a moral vow. Across every medical discipline, Palestinian healthcare workers have pledged to serve their people regardless of the catastrophic circumstances.
They have survived displacement, profound personal loss, and relentless bombardment just to keep hospital doors open. Yet today, as my colleague Dr Mohamed Awad, a dedicated dentist working on the frontlines in Gaza, reminds us, Palestinians face a crisis that dedication alone cannot solve: a suffocating and systematic shortage of basic medical supplies.
Dr Awad often invokes a poignant phrase known well among practitioners: "The pain of a toothache is only heard by the patient and their dentist."
To an outside observer, dental care might seem secondary amid a total humanitarian collapse. Yet, as Dr Awad highlights, in a displaced community stripped of basic sanitation and proper nutrition, untreated dental infections rapidly escalate into severe systemic illnesses, agonising pain, and life-threatening complications.
Despite this, the most fundamental instruments and materials required for basic dental interventions are almost entirely barred from entry.
However, the crisis Dr Awad describes reaches far beyond dental clinics into the most critical operating rooms. Speaking not only as a clinician but also as a heart patient himself, Dr Awad witnesses this tragedy from both sides of the stethoscope.
Life-saving cardiac procedures, including urgent catheterisations and stent placements, have come to a sudden, devastating halt across the Gaza Strip. Patients who miraculously survive military bombardments are now dying quietly in hospital beds simply because the precise instruments needed to clear a blocked artery are trapped behind closed borders.
What makes this reality particularly painful is the cruel illusion of aid presented to the international community.
Media outlets frequently report on trucks crossing into Gaza, creating the impression that relief is flowing freely. But as Dr Mohamed Awad points out, what is actually allowed inside? Bags of potato chips, biscuits, and non-essential commercial goods, items designed to fabricate a false narrative of normalisation, while life-saving pharmaceuticals, anesthetics, surgical gloves, and cardiac stents remain strictly prohibited.
To feed the illusion of humanitarian relief while denying hospitals the essential tools to save lives is a cynical mockery of human dignity.
Gaza does not need commercial snacks to survive. It needs primary medical equipment to keep hearts beating and to relieve unbearable physical suffering.
Together with Dr Mohamed Awad and the entire medical community in Gaza, I call upon journalists, human rights advocates, international organisations, and people of conscience worldwide to look past superficial headlines. There must be an immediate, loud, and unified demand to prioritise the entry of critical medical supplies into Gaza.
Silence in the face of this policy is complicity. It is time to raise our collective voice for the patients whose cries remain unheard.
From Emily: Please consider emailing Winston Peters at Winston.Peters@parliament.govt.nz to call on him to recognise the weaponisation of food, medicine and humanitarian aid by Israel.
Using the restriction of medicine and medical equipment as a weapon of war is a war crime. International human rights law, medical ethics and humanitarian law require medical neutrality and non-interference with medical services. Israel is breaching international and humanitarian law.
Israel must be held accountable for its relentless attacks on hospitals and clinics in Gaza.
While it's unlikely Winston Peters has the courage to stand against Israel, it's important we put on record that we tried to get our politicians to act during the genocide. Particularly to have this information when there is an eventual war crimes tribunal or trial at the International Court of Justice.
Please use the hashtags #AllowMedicalSupplies #SaveGazaPatients #GazaHealthcareCrisis #DrMohamedAwad to support this campaign.
Remember we run a mutual aid account supporting families in Gaza. You can donate via the bank account:
Account Name: Prosean Pictures
Bank Account: 06-0574-0906928-00