By Maha Hussaini in Gaza City, occupied Palestine
May 5, 2025
Under Israeli siege and with hospitals destroyed, a mother’s desperation leads to makeshift asthma treatment
After doctors narrowly saved Maram Manaa’s daughter from a life-threatening asthma attack, she pleaded for proper treatment to stop the attacks from returning.
The Palestinian mother of three waited anxiously at her daughter’s bedside in a field hospital in central Gaza.
When the doctor finally returned, he was holding a plastic water bottle.
It had been fashioned into a makeshift spacer, connected to an inhaler far too strong for a child that age.
“This is all we’ve got,” he told her.
With Israel blocking all goods and aid, including medical supplies, from entering Gaza for over two months, doctors are now resorting to desperate alternatives to medically approved devices that have run out.
Manaa says her daughter, three-year-old Mayan, has struggled with asthma for nearly two years. However her condition “worsened drastically” since the war began in October 2023.
“At the start, it was difficult to move her,” the 33-year-old told Middle East Eye.
She stayed in touch with her daughter’s doctor at al-Nasr Hospital in Gaza City, but reaching the hospital became impossible.
“We live in the central area, and the separation between the north and the south meant I couldn’t get her there.”
About a week into its war on Gaza, the Israeli military issued its first expulsion orders, telling residents of Gaza City and the northern Gaza to head south of the Gaza Valley.
Weeks later, it sealed off the north entirely and began targeting anyone trying to cross from the south or centre.
This left countless patients cut off from their doctors, hospitals, and any chance of proper care.
‘I feel helpless’
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