Gaza's youngest generation faces amputee crisis amid war

By Miranda Cleland

Nine months of genocide in Gaza, and counting, there are thousands of Palestinian children living life with at least one amputated limb who are not receiving the medical care they need. Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, the British-Palestinian plastic surgeon who operated on countless injured Palestinians in Gaza, estimates there could now be around 5,000 child amputees.

That's up sharply from the end of last year, when around 1,000 Palestinian children in Gaza were forced to undergo the amputation of one or both of their legs, according to UNICEF. More than seven months have passed since that first estimate, and Israel's campaign of genocide shows no signs of slowing down.

"This is the biggest cohort of paediatric amputees in history," Abu Sittah said in March. And as Israeli forces continue attacking Palestinians in Gaza from air, land, and sea, and Israeli authorities continue severely restricting and blocking aid and essentials from entering Gaza, there is hardly a healthcare system left to speak of to provide medical care for these children.

Four-year-old Ghazal and her family were struck by an Israeli tank-fired shell while they were attempting to flee to south Gaza in November 2023.

"The tank made my daughter lose her leg,” Ghazal's mother told a field researcher with Defense for Children International - Palestine (DCIP), where I work as an advocacy officer based in Washington, DC.

"The doctors had to cauterise her leg without anaesthesia. There were some knives in the apartment. They brought a gas jar to heat the knife, and began the amputation of the leg. And (my daughter) was screaming."

Unthinkable pain

Ghazal is not alone in her pain. Many amputations in Gaza are carried out over long hours without anaesthesia—an unthinkable and unbearable amount of pain for a child to endure.

Doctors and medical staff are amputating children's limbs in overcrowded hospitals where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians are seeking shelter and in dark operating rooms without electricity, painkillers, antibiotics, or sterilised supplies, all while under siege by Israeli forces.

Israel’s genocide campaign has brought Gaza’s health care system to its knees. There is no follow-up care or physical therapy. And there are no prosthetics.

A child amputee using a prosthetic limb needs a new prosthesis about once a year, and sometimes even more frequently, depending on their growth. As the child grows, they need continuous care from specialists.

Child amputees from Gaza can face extraordinary complications as their amputations heal, including infections, shrapnel injuries, and continued pain.

Eight-year-old Ritaj, a young Palestinian girl from Juhr Al-Deek, south of Gaza City, survived an Israeli airstrike that killed her family. After two days under the rubble, Ritaj was rescued. Doctors were forced to amputate her leg after several operations, and she is now struggling to heal while displaced in an UNRWA school shelter.

"The doctor checked my leg, and worms fell out!" Ritaj told a DCIP field researcher who visited her at the UNRWA school shelter she is staying at with her aunt. "Every day, I can’t sleep because of the sound of the bombing and I want to sleep because I am in pain from my leg, but I endure."

While some injured Palestinian children in Gaza have managed to keep their limbs, more are facing a lifetime of paralysis and accompanying complications.

Mohammed's story

The war is wounding Gaza's children in other ways.

An Israeli quadcopter fired a bullet that struck 15-year-old Mohammad in the back while he was walking on Salahaddin Street in Gaza City mid-March, according to documentation collected by DCIP.

Mohammad bled on the ground for two hours before Palestinian passersby were able to take him to the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital. Shortly after, he was transferred to Kamal Adwan Hospital, where he underwent surgery.

Now, Mohammad is paralysed from the waist down, unable to use his legs.

"I used to love playing with my friends, who I lost some of them during the war, but now I cannot play due to injury," Mohammad told DCIP. "I used to love playing football, and I always stood as a goalkeeper."

Prior to October, a 16-year-old Palestinian child in Gaza had lived through five major Israeli military offensives that killed and injured hundreds of their peers. Essentially every child in Gaza today has suffered trauma, which can manifest as anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, bed-wetting, insomnia, night terrors, and more.

Around 12 percent of Palestinian children in Gaza faced at least one "functional difficulty" before the latest war on Gaza began, according to UNICEF. Whether a child's disability is physical or cognitive, they are at heightened risk during Israeli attacks. Children who rely on wheelchairs or other assistive devices cannot move easily over destroyed roads.

Vulnerable group

Twelve-year-old Dunia survived an Israeli strike that killed her parents and siblings and cut off her leg.

“There was blood and I had no leg,” Dunia told a DCIP field researcher in November. "I tried to move it, but it wouldn’t move."

Israeli attacks displaced Dunia and her family, buried her under the rubble, made her an orphan, and destroyed her leg. While Dunia was recovering in Naser Hospital in Khan Younis in December 2023, an Israeli tank-fired shell struck her as she lay in her hospital bed. Dunia was killed instantly.

Israeli forces are unleashing brutality on Palestinian children in Gaza at every turn. As the child death toll in Gaza climbs past 15,000, and more children suffer injuries from Israeli attacks, it's far past time for the international community to act.

Countries must halt the flow of weapons to the Israeli military because children in Gaza need a ceasefire today. Disabled Palestinian children deserve to live and heal from their wounds—an opportunity which Israeli forces stole from Dunia.

Legal obligation

For disabled Palestinian children in Gaza like Ghazal, Ritaj, Mohammad, and the thousands of injured children now moving through the world with one fewer limb, ensuring these children have access to medical care, education, and rehabilitation is not just the right thing to do: It's legally required.

Israel ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, wherein it agrees to uphold the specified rights of children. Article 23 of the CRC focuses on the special rights of children with disabilities.

They should receive special care and education to facilitate their complete social integration and personal development, as well as their right to education, training, healthcare services, rehabilitation, and recreational opportunities.

Israel's genocide in Gaza is targeting Palestinian disabled children who cannot run from airstrikes, hear bullets being fired, or understand why their family is displaced, again and again.

After nine months of genocide, countless Palestinian children in Gaza have complex medical needs, and it's up to the international community to enact an arms embargo and work to hold Israeli authorities accountable for their crimes.

Miranda Cleland is an advocacy officer at Defense for Children International - Palestine and lives in Washington, DC, where she advocates for the human rights of Palestinian children. She holds a bachelor's with honors from American University in International Studies and Arabic language.

Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of TRT Afrika.

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