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A local Gaza association’s investigation found 35,000 children and adults have partially or completely lost their hearing, as the newspaper detailed cases and medical constraints linked to the war and the difficulty of obtaining hearing devices in the Gaza Strip, Le Monde reported.
The report examined the profound human toll of the war in Gaza, particularly its impact on residents’ hearing.
According to the report, some children require urgent access to a hearing aid and may also need a cochlear implant; without timely intervention, significant developmental delays are likely.
However, obtaining such devices is reported to be extremely difficult under Israel’s blockade of Gaza, according to the French newspaper.
The report draws on the case of a young girl, Dana, who lost her hearing after a rocket exploded near her bedroom.
This has made communication within her family a daily struggle, amid a lack of sign language knowledge and an absence of support services.
Dana’s parents took her to specialists at Gaza’s Atfaluna Association for the Deaf, whose staff have continued their work despite the destruction of the association’s main center in the Strip.
The specialists told the family that “the child’s auditory nerve has been severely damaged and may have been completely destroyed due to the force of the blast,” the newspaper reported.
The newspaper also recounted the story of the infant Ayan Al-Qarra, who was hurled by an explosion near the displacement tent where his family was staying and buried under sand.
His mother, Safa, said, “We were able to find him because his feet were visible. He was in a horrific state, and we thought he would die.” He survived, but medical assessments later showed that he has no hearing at all.
The child requires a hearing aid and possibly a cochlear implant; without timely intervention, significant developmental delays are likely.
But, as with Dana’s family, Ayan’s family faces the near impossibility of obtaining such devices under Israel’s blockade of Gaza, the French newspaper reported.
Specialists explain that hearing loss in Gaza results not only from direct injuries, but also from intense shockwaves that can cause damage, often irreversible, to the auditory nerve.
The crisis is further compounded by restrictions on the entry of medical equipment. No hearing aids or their batteries have entered the Strip for many months, according to the newspaper, alongside the destruction of medical infrastructure and shortages of specialized personnel.
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