{"id":4357,"date":"2026-11-13T16:03:44","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T11:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4357"},"modified":"2026-11-13T16:03:44","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T11:03:44","slug":"six-year-old-gaza-burn-victim-caught-in-israeli-dispute-over-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4357","title":{"rendered":"Six-year-old Gaza burn victim caught in Israeli dispute over aid"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The excruciating burns run around the side of Masa Yassin\u2019s tiny face, behind her ear, over her scalp and down her neck.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since her family\u2019s tent burst into flames when a nearby cooking gas tank exploded in July, part of the 6-year-old girl\u2019s treatment has been a clear plastic 3D-printed mask, \u200bwhich helps manage swelling and control the scars on her face.<\/p>\n

But soon she will outgrow it, and the international medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, \u200cwhich operates the only clinic in Gaza that can make her a new one, says it has been barred by Israel from importing the plastic.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould there be no masks, my daughter will grow more scar tissue,\u201d said Masa\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would have \u200bto resort to surgery instead of masks, and there are no such surgeries in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>Israeli dispute with MSF<\/strong><\/h3>\n

More than a year since a ceasefire halted major fighting \u200bin Gaza, the entire population of more than 2 million Palestinians lives confined to around a third of the tiny enclave\u2019s territory, \u2060mainly in makeshift tents and damaged buildings.<\/p>\n

Israeli forces still control everything that enters and exits. Israel says it allows in all needed medical equipment and supplies.<\/p>\n

But many aid groups say restrictions \u200bmake it impossible to provide basic treatment desperately needed by a vulnerable population besieged inside a conflict zone.<\/p>\n

The custom masks provided by MSF for scores of Gazan burn victims have \u200bbecome embroiled in a dispute between the international medical charity and Israel over Israeli demands for information about local staff working for foreign groups.<\/p>\n

Israel has banned MSF\u2019s international staff from Gaza and barred the group from importing any supplies since the end of February, after MSF refused an Israeli demand to submit names of all its local staff in Gaza.<\/p>\n

MSF says it cannot provide such lists without assurances that staff would be \u200bsafe, because hundreds of medics have been killed during the war.<\/p>\n

In a response to a request for comment, COGAT, the unit of the Israeli military responsible for aid to Gaza, confirmed it \u200bhad barred imports by MSF for failure to comply with requirements, including supplying staff lists needed to prevent \u201cthe misuse of humanitarian aid by terrorist organisations\u201d.<\/p>\n

It said that unlike MSF, other aid groups had \u200ccomplied and \u2060were operating freely.<\/p>\n

It had approved the entry of more than 24,000 tons of medical supplies into Gaza, it said, and rejected accusations that it was blocking medical aid as a falsehood spread by Hamas militants.<\/p>\n

MSF says complying with the Israeli registration requirement would put its staff in danger, and that the victims of the restrictions are vulnerable Palestinian patients like Masa.<\/p>\n

\u201cA child\u2019s mutilated face can no longer receive even a basic treatment, not because the technology or the expertise is lacking, but because Israel imposes a regime under which healing itself \u200bis a privilege,\u201d Filipe Ribeiro, MSF\u2019s head \u200bof mission for Palestine, said in a \u2060message to Reuters.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u201cBroken futures\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

At an MSF clinic in Gaza City, technicians measured Masa\u2019s face to try to see if they could make adjustments to her existing mask so she can keep wearing it for longer as she grows, since they do not have supplies to \u200bmake a new one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have now exhausted our stock of plastic sheets and printer filament,\u201d said Mohammed Al-Qatrawi, supervisor of physiotherapy for MSF \u200bFrance in Gaza at \u2060the clinic. Once Masa grows and her mask no longer fits properly, it could cause her pain and limit the benefits, he said.<\/p>\n

Demand has been surging. There are 70 patients, including 50 children, receiving treatment for facial burns, 20 of whom need masks urgently, he said.<\/p>\n

With so many children needing new masks, MSF has been decorating some of them with drawings of cartoon \u2060characters such \u200bas the Smurfs and SpongeBob SquarePants.<\/p>\n

If the clinic were forced to halt its service, patients such as Masa \u200bwould \u201cdevelop scar-related complications that can affect speaking, eating, drinking, vision, and facial movement,\u201d he said. Children would have worse deformities that could leave them ostracised.<\/p>\n

Back outside her tent, Masa plays marbles in the dirt with her twin \u200bsister and their younger sister. You can see her face beneath the clear plastic as she smiles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The excruciating burns run around the side of Masa Yassin\u2019s tiny face, behind her ear, over her scalp and down her neck. Since her family\u2019s tent burst into flames when a nearby cooking gas tank exploded in July, part of the 6-year-old girl\u2019s treatment has been a clear plastic 3D-printed mask, \u200bwhich helps manage swelling and control the scars on her face. But soon she will outgrow it, and the international medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, \u200cwhich operates the only clinic in Gaza that can make her a new one,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}