At the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Maryam Abu Alba, a young child, can be heard crying out in pain. Her grandmother explains, “The neighbor’s house was bombed, and their home was hit.” According to her, Maryam’s leg had to be amputated, and metal plates were inserted into her other leg, which was fractured, causing her severe pain.
Gaza is now the place with the highest number of child amputees per capita in the world.
At the same hospital, young Mohammad Hassan gazes down at his heavily bandaged left leg and the stump where his foot used to be. He shares his story, “I was going to buy falafel. On the way home, I looked up and saw a rocket heading towards me. I tried to run but it was too fast. I found myself pinned to the wall, and my foot had been blown off. Then someone picked me up and took me to this hospital.”
In May, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) took over aid delivery in Gaza and reduced the number of distribution points to a few fortified hubs. This policy has been criticized by the UN and NGO partners. On Monday, the UN human rights office described attempts to access these sites as “a deadly pursuit.” Since May, thousands of Palestinians have been killed or injured while seeking food.
Ibrahim Abdel Nabi is one of the many Palestinians who went to the aid distribution hubs in hope of finding provisions for their families. In his tent at a displacement site in the coastal Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, Mr. Nabi, surrounded by his wife and children, tells how the journey ended in disaster and life-changing injuries. “We were told that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation had opened its doors to distribute aid. When I arrived at the Al-Alam area, west of Rafah, I was hit by an explosive bullet in my leg. I was bleeding for about an hour and a half, and no one came to help me.”
Eventually, a group of people came to his rescue and took him to the nearby Red Cross hospital. “I stayed there for about a month and a half, undergoing about 12 operations. I became malnourished and lost a lot of blood. Infection spread, and more of my leg had to be amputated.”
As Mr. Nabi was trying to recover, he was aware that his family were still in need of food. Despite the pain, he decided to make a simple prosthesis from materials he could find to allow him to get back on his feet and make fresh attempts to find food and water. “The prosthesis injures my leg. It causes inflammation and increases the pain. We don’t have medical care or supplies, but I will use it no matter how much it hurts,” he said.
As he speaks, Mr. Nabi’s wife begins to cry. “God willing, we will live through this experience,” she says. Mr. Nabi gets up on crutches and heads to a nearby tent, where his wife helps him put on the crude prosthesis. “Don’t strain yourself. Take your time. Walk slowly,” she repeats, over and over.
Source: https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2025/08/1165695
