Gaza's diabetic children forced to rely on expired insulin as supplies run out

A critical shortage of insulin in Gaza is putting thousands of diabetic children at severe risk, with desperate families resorting to expired medication and reused needles to keep their children alive.

Dozens of children are receiving treatment at Gaza City's Rantisi Children's Hospital.

Among them is Zad Barakat, who was hospitalized after suffering complications reportedly linked to the use of expired insulin. His family struggles daily to secure the medication he needs to survive.

"Because of insulin shortages and a lack of regular medical checkups, my son's eyesight has suffered. He can now see only a quarter with his right eye and half with his left. What has a seven-year-old child done to deserve losing his vision so early? He needs insulin, and now new glasses every six months," said Manal Barakat, his mother.

Some patients are forced to reuse injection needles or rely on expired insulin, risking dangerous blood sugar complications.

"For the past three months, no insulin pens have been allowed into Gaza. Even the pens previously permitted were damaged by improper storage at the crossings. Humanitarian organizations need to coordinate the entry of sufficient quantities, but so far, the Israeli side has not allowed anything in," said Sharif Matar, a pediatric consultant at Rantisi Children's Hospital.

In Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, children with diabetes, their families and doctors staged a protest at Nasser Hospital in mid-October, demanding the urgent entry of insulin through Gaza's crossings.

"Can you imagine a child anywhere in the world needing insulin and unable to find it, forced instead to use expired insulin pens just to manage their blood sugar? Unfortunately, this is an extremely tragic reality," said Ahmed Al-Farra, head of the pediatric department at Nasser Hospital.

An estimated 11,000 people in Palestine, including approximately 3,700 children and adolescents, are facing growing risks of life-threatening complications, according to the International Diabetes Federation.

Gaza's diabetic children forced to rely on expired insulin as supplies run out

Gaza's diabetic children forced to rely on expired insulin as supplies run out

Gaza's diabetic children forced to rely on expired insulin as supplies run out

Iran has warned regional countries that any support for the United States in the event of a renewed armed conflict would be regarded as a hostile act toward Tehran, an Iranian official said on Friday.

Iran would be able to identify which regional states are prepared to back American forces if military action resumes, said Fada Hossein Maleki, a member of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, speaking with Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

He added that in such a scenario, Iran could take actions beyond strikes on the military bases of those countries, and those countries themselves will be classified as hostile states.

Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said on the same day that the United States has spent 11 billion U.S. dollars in taxpayers' money on missile defense for Israel within the past three years.

"It has fired more interceptors defending Israel than Israel has," Araghchi said. "That is not a symbiotic relationship. It is a parasitic one."

The U.S. and Israeli militaries have drawn up concrete plans to launch another military strike on Iran after the U.S. midterm elections, The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing U.S. officials and other informed sources.

However, it remains uncertain whether U.S. President Donald Trump will approve the plan.

A senior Iranian security official has warned that global energy markets will remain volatile "for the next three years" if the U.S. continues its current pressure campaign against Iran.

"Perpetuating the current situation will carry strategic consequences, not least that the energy markets will not find calm for the next three years," Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei said in an interview, published Thursday, with U.S.-based news outlet Drop Site News.

Rezaei said that if another war is imposed on Iran, Tehran still has the capacity to launch missiles and drones at various U.S. assets across the region and will expand its target list to include "cables, data centers and artificial intelligence facilities."

The official also said Gulf states "are rapidly redefining their relationship with Iran" as they realize that "the U.S. military is incapable of defending its own bases."

Iran warns regional countries against support for US in case of renewed armed conflict