The war in Gaza has led to the death of over 34,000 killed in the fighting. But this is not the full picture – every day more lives are being lost due to lack of access to medical care, living in extreme and unsanitary conditions and lack of food and clean water. These are tragedies that should and could have been prevented. This is Lara’s story:

Lara was a young Christian girl from Gaza who sought shelter in the Holy Family Catholic Church at the start of the war, along with her family. Yet the church couldn’t shelter Lara from the impacts of war. Lara’s father died from complications to his pre-existing heart condition, exacerbated by the disruption of medical services since October 7th.*

Lara has two brothers. The eldest lives in Canada, but the brother who remained in Gaza has kidney failure and is reliant on dialysis. Unable to access regular treatment in Gaza, and with his health deteriorating, he managed to reach Egypt where the family hoped that a transplant from his older brother would cure his condition.

Sadly, the transplant was unsuccessful and Lara’s mother decided to try to get to Egypt to reach her son and reunite her family in relative safety.

The decision was simple, but getting to the border was another matter. Journeying anywhere in Gaza is extremely perilous. Not only are there the direct dangers caused by the fighting and the destruction of the war, but most of Gaza’s basic infrastructure has been destroyed. Israeli regulations meant Lara and her mother would not be able to take many possessions with them and finding food, shelter or medical care along the way would be extremely difficult.

Everyone moving from the north to the south must pass through IDF checkpoints. There are lots of people and the waiting time is long. In recent weeks the temperatures have risen in Gaza, there is no shelter for those waiting and the wearing of hats is not permitted.

For Lara – already weakened by months of inadequate food, water and shelter – the conditions ultimately proved too much and she succumbed to dehydration. Despite being transferred to hospital, she was unable to be saved. She was laid to rest in the Al Zawaideh area of south Wadi Gaza.

Lara’s story and that of her family, underscores the dire conditions faced by hundreds of thousands of families in Gaza every day. With heat rising and the threat of an attack on Rafah where millions of people are sheltering, how many more stories like Lara’s will there be? These tragedies are not captured in statistics, but they are a direct result of the conflict and the failure of the international community to demand sufficient aid, humanitarian access and protection for civilians in Gaza.

* It has been projected that there will have been more than 1,000 excess deaths from complications related to non-communicable diseases such as heart disease and diabetes from February to May 2024 - find out more

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