Israel has carried out fresh attacks on Gaza in its latest violation of October’s ceasefire agreement. Israeli airstrikes were reported in Beit Lehia, eastern parts of Gaza City, and in Khan Younis, where some areas are also under Israeli artillery fire. On Wednesday Israel reopened the Zikim crossing into northern Gaza for the first time in two months — following repeated pleas by U.N. aid agencies to allow food and other essential goods to flow to communities left hungry and destitute by Israel’s scorched-earth bombing campaign. Meanwhile Israel is increasingly barring foreign doctors from volunteering in Gaza – like California trauma surgeon Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, who says he was blocked from entering Gaza this week. The World Health Organization warns only half of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are even partially functioning. This is Mohammed Wael Helles, a 14-year-old Palestinian boy who’s gone months without proper care for a severe spinal cord injury he received when an Israeli airstrike struck the vehicle he was riding in.

Mohammed Wael Helles: “I have been waiting for surgery for 50 days, and my surgery shouldn’t be delayed because I have a severed spinal cord. Also, there are thousands of people waiting for surgery rooms. I also have vertebrae fractures and I can’t breathe.”