BBC News
Dr Sabra says that getting messages from his family is “a waiting game”
A doctor says he feels “helpless” as he waits to hear from his elderly father and sister in war-torn Gaza.
Dr Ahmed Sabra, who lives in Swansea, has not spoken to his family for close to two weeks, and said they were struggling to find medicine for his niece, who has type 1 diabetes.
The UN believes there is mounting evidence of famine and widespread starvation in Gaza, and blames the crisis on Israel, which controls the entry of all supplies into the territory.
In response Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar admitted the situation in Gaza was “tough” but it was a “lie” that Israel was deliberately starving the population.
He added Hamas was responsible for what he called “this tough reality”.
The UN reported at least 63 malnutrition-related deaths in July.
Cardiologist Dr Sabra, who was born in the territory but now lives in Sketty, Swansea, with his wife and children, said he was “very emotional” when he last spoke to his 75-year-old father.
“It was the first time when he told me it’s very difficult and there isn’t enough food,” he said.
“He lost 30kg (4st 10lbs) since the start of all this, and he is now almost skin and bone, which is difficult for me as a doctor. I cannot help my own family.”
He said he mostly speaks to his relatives over WhatsApp, but hearing from them was a “waiting game” because of unreliable connections.
“The internet network cover is very bad, sometimes you can’t even call.
“One of the most difficult times is when there’s a total blackout, which did happen a few times. Then you don’t know anything.”
He said he found it “unfair” that his father was living in the war-torn territory.
“He’s somebody who worked really hard all his life and was helping the needy and the poor. And now he is in this situation where he’s struggling to find clean water.”
EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images
Aid pallets have been parachuted into the Gaza strip in recent days
Dr Sabra’s sister has 12-year old twins, and one of the girls has type 1 diabetes.
He said in one of the last messages he received from his sister, she told him the only insulin she managed to find was expired.
“Last week she sent another message, telling me her daughter’s blood sugar was very low and she was just running in the street, shouting for anyone who has any sugar.
“A neighbour gave her a small container of sugar, which she managed to give to her daughter. So even basic things, it doesn’t exist anymore.”
He added: “My sister told me that starving is a hundred times worse than being bombed and killed at once, because she is seeing her children starving and she can’t provide for them.
“A kilo of flour is 200 times more expensive than what it was a year ago.”
BBC Wales spoke to Dr Sabra after he fled Gaza in 2023, shortly after the current war began.
He was visiting his family when Hamas led an attack at a music festival and several villages in southern Israel on 7 October 2023.
More than 1,100 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. Israel launched a military campaign in response shortly afterwards.
Earlier this week Hamas released the footage of hostage Evyatar David, 24, looking emaciated and weak, drawing strong condemnation from Israel and Western leaders.
He is among 49 hostages who Israel says are still being held in Gaza. This includes 27 hostages who are believed to be dead.
The Hamas-led health ministry in Gaza said more than 60,000 people have been killed in the territory since October 2023.
BBC Wales spoke to Dr Ahmed Sabra after his failed escape from Gaza in November 2023
When the conflict broke out Dr Sabra was stranded in Gaza for six weeks. He said the five-storey home his family were renting was bombed and destroyed.
He and his family travelled to the Rafah crossing, close to the border with Egypt to escape.
His wife and children were able to cross, but he was turned away because his name was left off a list of British nationals. Four days later his name was added, and he was able to get out.
He said hearing of family and friends dying was frustrating and difficult to deal with as he was unable to treat them.
“Working in a hospital in the NHS, I deal with death and dying people. But the difficult thing with what’s going on in Gaza is just the unknown and you don’t have closure,” he said.
“Every day when I hold the phone and open it my fear is I will lose another member of my family.
“I feel guilty when we eat something, when I know that my family and two million other people are starving.”
He said “hundreds” of members of his extended family had been killed in Gaza.
“My wife’s nephew, who was killed in February 2024, when he went to get a bag of flour for his family, he was shot in the pelvis and even paramedics were not allowed to come and rescue him. He bled to death.
“Your loved ones sometimes will be killed, and you don’t even know if they’ve been killed or not. They will just vanish.”
Referencing the recent casualties at aid centres set up by the Israeli Defence Force in northern Gaza, Dr Sabra said: “Many people are killed at so called aid humanitarian centres, which in Gaza is called, the death trap.”
EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images
The UN believes there is mounting evidence of famine and widespread starvation in Gaza
BBC Wales has approached the Israeli Embassy in London for a response.
Israeli government spokespeople have previously insisted there were no restrictions on aid deliveries and maintained there was “no starvation” and has repeatedly accused Hamas of stealing aid.
They have also denied targeting aid distribution centres during attacks.
