American physician Dr Ambreen Salimi has described harrowing conditions in Gaza’s hospitals, where famine and relentless bombardment are forcing premature births and leaving newborns dangerously malnourished. Working alongside exhausted Palestinian medical teams at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, she revealed that she is often compelled to perform early caesarean sections on mothers weakened by hunger and infection.

Since Israel intensified its blockade in March, closing crossings to aid and exacerbating an already dire famine, Gaza’s hospitals have been overwhelmed. Salimi recounted cases of babies born perilously underweight, mothers suffering burns from airstrikes while pregnant, and children injured amid relentless displacement. She stressed that poor nutrition, repeated infections, and psychological trauma are driving serious pregnancy complications, while hospitals lack beds, supplies, and essential equipment.

Holding a malnourished newborn in the neonatal ward, Salimi said, “This is what we see every day.” She highlighted that even medical staff are suffering from hunger yet continue to work tirelessly. The suffering etched on the faces of patients and doctors alike, she said, is “beyond imagination.”

Her testimony underscores Gaza’s spiralling humanitarian collapse, where malnutrition, displacement, and unrelenting attacks converge to strip Palestinians of even the most basic chances of survival. Salimi’s plea echoes growing calls for urgent international action: “No one can truly grasp what every family here is enduring.”