Gaza health officials have diagnosed a Palestinian baby girl with a rare condition caused by a genetic mutation in the production of collagen, commonly called brittle bone disease.

"About 10 days after her birth, while her mother was changing her clothes, I noticed a fracture like that of a pencil tip in her skull. The girl then started screaming her head off and crying. We rushed her to a nearby hospital since we had no idea what the issue was," the infant's father, seeking anonymity, told the UAE daily al-Bayan.

The father added that twenty days later another rupture took place leading doctors to place the little girl under constant care. Further tests revealed that she is suffering from Osteogenesis imperfecta, a genetic disorder characterized by bones that break easily, often from little or no apparent cause. The baby has so far sustained eight fractures, two in the skull, one in each of the right and left hands, and four in the legs.

The girl's father lamented that her daughter can neither undergo proper treatment in Gaza nor receive care elsewhere, all due to the tight blockade Israel has imposed on the impoverished coastal sliver.

Israel's blockade of Gaza denies 1.4 million Palestinians the food, fuel and medicine they require. The United Nations has occasionally called on Israel to end the blockade of Gaza, which is having a negative impact on the humanitarian and human rights situation of the civilian population.

In his latest report on human rights of the Palestinians, UN chief Ban Ki-moon stressed that the blockade of Gaza, in its third year, amounts to a "collective punishment", and is a violation of the right to food, water, health, work and adequate standards of living for the Palestinian people.

"Israel should allow unimpeded access to Gaza for humanitarian aid and the non-humanitarian goods needed for the reconstruction of properties and infrastructure," Ban said in the annual report addressed to the General Assembly.

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