Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
Doctors in Gaza faced with a drastic shortage of medical supplies have been forced to take desperate measures, including reusing materials from dead bodies, medics and aid officials who returned from a recent trip to the enclave said on Monday.
They painted a dire picture of the medical situation in Gaza, where there are no fully functioning hospitals after 200 days of war in the enclave.
The doctors explained how they had resorted to removing external fixators – stabilising frames that hold fractured bones together – from the dead and installing them on living patients.
“Doctors have now started to reuse some medical equipment meant for single use," Medical Aid for Palestinians chief executive Melanie Ward said.
"Doctors are now having to remove [external fixators] from patients who have died and reuse them on living patients. That’s how serious the situation is."
Vascular surgeon Dr Mahim Qureshi said she had to use a clean nappy to cover the wound of a man in Al Aqsa Hospital's emergency ward who had been wounded in his leg by Israeli shelling.
"That was the cleanest thing I could find in those minutes to place on his limbs," she said. The man later lost his leg.
With the absence of clean running water, surgeons are unable even to properly wash their hands between surgical procedures, she added.
Gaza's decimated infrastructure also means that raw sewage and human waste is left untreated and exposed to millions of people seeking refuge in overcrowded areas in Rafah.
"This has direct implications on children having to live in unhygienic and unsanitary conditions, with Israel not having switched on the water supply," said Ms Ward.
Dr Khaled Dawas, who recently visited Gaza, said "every single wound we have seen is infected".
With 40 per cent of aid convoys attempting to enter Gaza being returned, and almost all of the enclave's 2.1 million people on the brink of famine, the ramifications "are huge", causing a large segment of the population to become "immunocompromised".
More than 34,100 people have been killed and 77,000 wounded since October 7, Gaza's Health Ministry said, adding that thousands remain under rubble.
Last week, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said even if a ceasefire were to come into effect immediately in Gaza, about 12,000 people would die as a result of disease in the next six months and 90,000 others would be killed as a result of "secondary impacts" if the conflict escalated further.
Massive displacement is compounding the problem of Palestinians being unable to have access to medicine and what little remains of the healthcare system.
A staggering number – perhaps 70 per cent of the population – are without adequate shelter, with about six in 10 homes either damaged or destroyed.
Many are afraid of returning to their neighbourhoods given the precarious situation.
The UN said this month that "up to 1.9 million internally displaced people were either residing in 154 UNRWA shelters or near these shelters".
"Due to the continued escalation of fighting and evacuation orders, some households have moved away from the shelters where they were initially registered," it said.
IRC vice president of emergencies Bob Kitchen has worked in the humanitarian sector for 25 years across various conflicts.
"I have never seen another example where two million people are cornered, slaughtered and starved and the world is essentially inert," he said.
Gaza's few functioning hospitals have reported siege-like conditions, with the UN saying that Israeli forces had hampered efforts to "deliver medical supplies, fuel, deploy emergency medical teams and facilitate the referral of critical patients".
Israel says its targets are Hamas fighters in hospitals, a charge health workers and the group deny.
Aid agencies warned the looming Israeli offensive in the southern city of Rafah would be disastrous for civilians.
There would be "no way possible" of Israel carrying out its operation without "human slaughter", Ms Ward said.
"There is no space to move. It would be impossible for them to attack and for it to not be a disaster of epic proportions."
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
The End of Loneliness
Benedict Wells
Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins
Sceptre
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ERobert%20Lorenz%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Liam%20Neeson%2C%20Kerry%20Condon%2C%20Jack%20Gleeson%2C%20Ciaran%20Hinds%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Global institutions: BlackRock and KKR
US-based BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with $5.98 trillion of assets under management as of the end of last year. The New York firm run by Larry Fink provides investment management services to institutional clients and retail investors including governments, sovereign wealth funds, corporations, banks and charitable foundations around the world, through a variety of investment vehicles.
KKR & Co, or Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, is a global private equity and investment firm with around $195 billion of assets as of the end of last year. The New York-based firm, founded by Henry Kravis and George Roberts, invests in multiple alternative asset classes through direct or fund-to-fund investments with a particular focus on infrastructure, technology, healthcare, real estate and energy.
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Dubai World Cup factbox
Most wins by a trainer: Godolphin’s Saeed bin Suroor(9)
Most wins by a jockey: Jerry Bailey(4)
Most wins by an owner: Godolphin(9)
Most wins by a horse: Godolphin’s Thunder Snow(2)
The biog
Name: Dhabia Khalifa AlQubaisi
Age: 23
How she spends spare time: Playing with cats at the clinic and feeding them
Inspiration: My father. He’s a hard working man who has been through a lot to provide us with everything we need
Favourite book: Attitude, emotions and the psychology of cats by Dr Nicholes Dodman
Favourit film: 101 Dalmatians - it remind me of my childhood and began my love of dogs
Word of advice: By being patient, good things will come and by staying positive you’ll have the will to continue to love what you're doing
Anti-semitic attacks
The annual report by the Community Security Trust, which advises the Jewish community on security , warned on Thursday that anti-Semitic incidents in Britain had reached a record high.
It found there had been 2,255 anti-Semitic incidents reported in 2021, a rise of 34 per cent from the previous year.
The report detailed the convictions of a number of people for anti-Semitic crimes, including one man who was jailed for setting up a neo-Nazi group which had encouraged “the eradication of Jewish people” and another who had posted anti-Semitic homemade videos on social media.
If you go
The flights Etihad (www.etihad.com) and Spice Jet (www.spicejet.com) fly direct from Abu Dhabi and Dubai to Pune respectively from Dh1,000 return including taxes. Pune airport is 90 minutes away by road.
The hotels A stay at Atmantan Wellness Resort (www.atmantan.com) costs from Rs24,000 (Dh1,235) per night, including taxes, consultations, meals and a treatment package.
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
