By ABDEL KAREEM HANA and FATMA KHALED
NUSEIRAT, Gaza Strip (AP) — Sitting in her wheelchair, Haneen al-Mabhouh dreams of rebuilding her family, of cradling a baby. Dream of walking again. But without a leg, his life in Gaza is on hold, he says, waiting to travel abroad for more advanced treatment.
In July 2024, an Israeli airstrike destroyed her home in central Gaza while she and her family were sleeping. Her four daughters died, including her 5-month-old baby. Her husband suffered serious burns. Al-Mabhouh’s legs were crushed under the rubble and doctors had to amputate his right leg above the knee.
“For the last year and a half I have not been able to move or live like others. For the last year and a half I have lived without children,” she said at her parents’ house.
The two-month ceasefire in Gaza has been slow to provide aid to thousands of Palestinians who suffered amputations from Israeli bombings over the past two years. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are between 5,000 and 6,000 people with amputated limbs due to the war, 25% of them children.
Those who lost limbs are struggling to adapt amid shortages of prosthetics and long delays in medical evacuations from Gaza.
The WHO reported that a shipment of essential prosthetic supplies recently arrived in Gaza. This appears to be the first significant shipment in the last two years.
Previously, Israel had allowed virtually no entry of prefabricated prosthetics or materials to produce them since the start of the war, according to Loay Abu Saif, director of the disability program at Medical Aid for Palestinians, or MAP, and Nevin Al Ghussein, acting director of the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City.
The Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid, known as COGAT, did not respond when asked how many prosthetic supplies had come in during the war or its policies on the matter.
“My future is paralyzed”
Al-Mabhouh was sleeping with her baby in her arms when the attack hit her home in Nuseirat, she said. For several weeks, while recovering in the hospital, al-Mabhouh did not know that his daughters had died.
She underwent multiple surgeries and still has difficulty moving one hand. His remaining leg is still mangled, held together with rods. He needs a bone graft and other treatments that are only available outside Gaza.
She was placed on the medical evacuation list 10 months ago, but has yet to get permission from Israel to leave Gaza.
Waiting for his opportunity, he lives in his parents’ house. He needs help changing clothes and can’t even hold a pen. And she is still devastated by the grief of having lost her daughters.
“I never heard her say ‘mama’, saw her first tooth or saw her take her first steps,” she said of her baby.
She dreams of having a new child, but she can’t until she receives treatment.
“It is my right to live, have another child, recover what I lost, walk, simply walk again,” he added. “Now my future is paralyzed. They destroyed my dreams.”
Medical evacuations are still slow
The ceasefire has barely prompted an increase in medical evacuations for the 16,500 Palestinians the UN reports are waiting to receive life-saving treatment abroad — not just amputees, but also patients with various types of chronic illnesses or injuries.
As of December 1, 235 patients had been evacuated since the ceasefire began in October – just under five a day. In the months before that, the average was about three a day.
Israel stated last week that it was willing to allow patients and other Palestinians to leave Gaza through the Israeli-controlled Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt. However, it is not certain that this will happen because Egypt, which controls the other side of the crossing, demands that Rafah also be opened for the entry of Palestinians into Gaza, as stipulated in the ceasefire agreement.
Doctor Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, explained to The Associated Press that the delay is due to the lack of countries taking in the evacuated patients. He added that new medical evacuation routes need to be opened, especially to the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, where hospitals are ready to receive patients.
For those who wait, life is on pause
Yassin Marouf lies in a tent in central Gaza, his left foot amputated and his right leg barely supported by rods.
The 23-year-old and his brother were hit by Israeli bombing in May when they returned from visiting their home in northern Gaza, from which their family had to flee. His brother died.
Marouf was bleeding on the ground when a stray dog attacked his shattered left leg.
Doctors report that his right leg will also need to be amputated unless he can travel abroad for potentially life-saving operations. Marouf said he cannot afford painkillers or go to the hospital regularly enough to have his bandages changed.
“If I want to go to the bathroom, I need two or three people to carry me,” he lamented.
Mohamed al-Naggar was studying Computer Science at the University of Palestine before the war.
Seven months ago, shrapnel pierced his left leg during attacks on the house where his family took refuge. Doctors amputated his leg above the knee. His right leg was also seriously injured and he still has shrapnel in some parts of his body.
Despite four surgeries and physical therapy, al-Naggar, 21, is unable to move.
“I would like to travel abroad, get a prosthesis, graduate from university and be normal like the young people outside of Gaza,” he said.
Gaza faces shortage of prosthetics
During the war, around 42,000 Palestinians have suffered life-changing injuries, including amputations, brain trauma, spinal cord injuries and severe burns, the WHO detailed in an October report.
The situation has “improved slightly” for those who need help, but “there is still a huge overall shortage of assistive products” such as wheelchairs, walkers and crutches. Gaza has only eight prosthetic specialists capable of manufacturing and adapting prostheses, the WHO highlighted in a statement to the AP.
The Center for Artificial Limbs and Polio in Gaza City — one of two prosthetic centers still operating in the territory — received a shipment of material to make prostheses just before the start of the war in 2023, reported Al Ghussein, its director. Another small shipment arrived in December 2024, but nothing since then.
The center has been able to provide prostheses for 250 cases during the war, but supplies are running out, Al Ghussein reported.
No prefabricated prosthetic legs or arms have entered, according to MAP’s Abu Saif, who said Israel does not prohibit them, but its procedures cause delays and “in the end they ignore it.”
Ibrahim Khalif wants a prosthetic right leg so he can work in manual labor or cleaning houses to support his pregnant wife and children.
In January, he lost a leg when an Israeli airstrike hit Gaza City while he was out shopping for food.
“Before I was my children’s breadwinner, but now I’m sitting here,” Khalif said. “I think about what I was like and what I have become.”
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