Six-year-old Gaza burn victim caught in Israeli dispute over aid

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Gaza burn victim faces treatment delays as MSF says Israel has blocked imports for facial masks used in scar care. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Palestinian mother Islam Yassin adjusting a facial pressure mask on her six-year-old daughter, Masa Yassin, who suffered burn injuries, inside their tent in Gaza City on Nov 11.

CAIRO/GAZA – The excruciating burns run around the side of Masa Yassin’s tiny face, behind her ear, over her scalp and down her neck.

Since her family’s tent burst into flames when a nearby cooking gas tank exploded in July, part of the six-year-old girl’s treatment has been a clear plastic 3D-printed mask, which helps manage swelling and control the scars on her face.

But soon she will outgrow it, and the international medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which operates the only clinic in Gaza that can make her a new one, says it has been barred by Israel from importing the plastic.

“Should there be no masks, my daughter will grow more scar tissue,” said Masa’s mother, Islam Yassin, as she gently adjusted straps on the mask of the girl on her lap on a plastic chair in their tent in a camp in Gaza City.

“We would have to resort to surgery instead of masks, and there are no such surgeries in Gaza.”

More than a year since a ceasefire halted major fighting in Gaza, the entire population of more than two million Palestinians lives confined to around a third of the tiny enclave’s territory, mainly in makeshift tents and damaged buildings.

Israeli forces still control everything that enters and exits. Israel says it allows in all needed medical equipment and supplies. But many aid groups say restrictions make it impossible to provide basic treatment desperately needed by a vulnerable population besieged inside a conflict zone.

The custom masks provided by MSF for scores of Gazan burn victims have become embroiled in a dispute between the international medical charity and Israel over Israeli demands for information about local staff working for foreign groups.

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