Eight-year-old Lara Al-Battrawi’s laughter once filled her Gaza neighbourhood. Today, she lies in a hospital bed, paralysed and kept alive by a ventilator. Her life changed in a single day, what began as mild weakness ended in a sudden collapse, leaving her unable to move or breathe on her own. Doctors diagnosed her with Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a rare but often deadly neurological disorder that has begun to claim more young lives across the besieged enclave.

The Ministry of Health has confirmed three recent deaths, including two children, and recorded 95 cases in just two months. With Gaza’s health system shattered by years of blockade and war, hospitals lack the medicines and equipment needed to treat the disease. Lifesaving therapies such as intravenous immunoglobulin and plasmapheresis are out of reach, forcing doctors to rely on observation alone. Patients are left vulnerable to paralysis, organ failure, and death.

Unclean water, overcrowding, and widespread bacterial contamination fuel the risk, while malnutrition weakens the immune systems of Gaza’s children. In these conditions, a curable illness elsewhere becomes a death sentence here. For Lara’s mother, already widowed and caring for five children, hope is all she has left. “She’s strong. She’ll play again,” she says, her voice unsteady.

Health officials warn the outbreak will worsen without urgent international aid. But as the siege grinds on, Gaza’s children face not only bombs and hunger, but an invisible threat that their doctors are powerless to fight.