NUSEIRAT, Gaza Strip (AP) — Seated in a wheelchair, Haneen al-Mabhouh dreams of rebuilding her family, of cradling a new baby. She dreams of walking again. But with a broken leg, her life in Gaza is on hold, she says, as she waits to go abroad for further treatment.
An Israeli airstrike in July 2024 destroyed her home in central Gaza while she and her family slept. All four of her daughters were killed, including her 5-month-old baby. Her husband was badly burned. Al-Mabhouh’s legs were crushed under the rubble and doctors had to amputate his right leg above the knee.
“For the past year and a half, I haven’t been able to move, to live like others. For the past year and a half, I’ve been childless,” she said, speaking at her parents’ home.
A 2-month ceasefire in Gaza has delayed bringing aid to thousands of Palestinians who have suffered amputations from Israeli bombardment over the past two years. The World Health Organization estimates that there are approximately 5,000 to 6,000 war amputees, 25% of whom are children.
Those who have lost limbs are struggling to adapt, facing a shortage of prosthetic limbs and long delays in medical evacuation from Gaza.
The WHO said a shipment of essential prosthetic materials had recently arrived in Gaza. This appears to be the first significant shipment in two years.
Previously, Israel had let in almost no prosthetics or ready-made materials for making limbs since the start of the war, according to Loay Abu Saif, head of the disability program at Medical Aid for Palestinians, or MAP, and Nevin Al Ghussein, acting director of the Center for Artificial Limbs and Polio in Gaza City.
The Israeli military body responsible for coordinating aid, known as COGAT, did not respond when asked how many prosthetic materials came in during the war or about its policies regarding such supplies.
“My future is paralyzed”
Al-Mabhouh was sleeping with her baby girl in her arms when the strike hit their house in Nuseirat, she said. For several weeks, while recovering in hospital, al-Mabhouh had no idea her children had been killed.
She underwent several surgeries. Her hand still has difficulty moving. Her remaining leg remains shattered, held together with rods. He needs a bone graft and other treatments that are only available outside Gaza.
She was put on the list for medical evacuation 10 months ago, but has not yet been given permission to leave Gaza.
Waiting for her chance to leave, she lives at her parents’ house. She needs help to change her clothes and can’t even hold a pen and is left heartbroken for her daughters. “I didn’t get to hear her say ‘mommy’, see her first tooth or watch her take her first steps,” she said of her child.
She dreams of having a new baby, but she can’t until she gets treatment.
“It’s my right to live, to have another child, to regain what I’ve lost, to walk, just to walk again,” she said. “Now my future is paralyzed. They destroyed my dreams.”
Medical evacuations remain slow
The ceasefire has brought almost no increase in medical evacuations for the 16,500 Palestinians the UN says are waiting to receive vital treatment abroad – not just amputees, but also patients suffering from many types of chronic illnesses or injuries.
As of December 1, 235 patients have been evacuated since the ceasefire began in October, just under five per day. In the months before that, the average was about three a day.
Israel said last week it was ready to allow patients and other Palestinians to leave Gaza through the Israeli-held Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt. But it is not certain that will happen because Egypt, which controls the other side of the crossing, is demanding that Rafah be opened and for Palestinians to enter Gaza, as required in the cease-fire agreement.
Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, told The Associated Press that the backlog is due to a lack of countries to host evacuated patients. He said new medical evacuation routes must be opened, particularly to the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, where hospitals are ready to receive patients.
For those who wait, life stops
Yassin Marouf lies in a tent in central Gaza, his left leg amputated, his right leg barely held together with rods.
The 23-year-old and his brother were hit by Israeli shelling in May as they returned from visiting their home in northern Gaza, from which their family had been forced to flee. His brother was killed. Marouf lay bleeding on the ground as a stray dog attacked his broken left leg.
Doctors say his right leg will also have to be amputated, unless he can travel abroad for potentially life-saving operations. Marouf said he can’t afford painkillers and can’t go to the hospital regularly to get his bandages changed properly.
“If I want to go to the bathroom, I need two or three people to carry me,” he said.
Mohamed al-Naggar had pursued an IT degree at the University of Palestine before the war.
Seven months ago, shrapnel pierced his left leg during strikes on the house where his family was sheltering. Doctors amputated his leg above the knee. His right leg was also badly injured and shrapnel remained in parts of his body.
Despite four surgeries and physical therapy, al-Naggar, 21, cannot move.
“I would like to travel abroad, get a prosthesis and graduate from college and be normal like the young people outside Gaza,” he said.
Gaza faces a shortage of prosthetic limbs
About 42,000 Palestinians suffered life-changing injuries during the war, including amputations, brain trauma, spinal cord injuries and major burns, the WHO said in an October report.
The situation has “improved slightly” for those with assistive needs, but “there is still a huge general lack of assistive products” such as wheelchairs, walkers and crutches. Gaza has only eight prosthetists capable of making and fitting artificial limbs, the WHO said in a statement to the AP.
The Center for Artificial Limbs and Polio in Gaza City, one of two prosthetics centers still operating in the territory, received a shipment of material to make the limbs just before the start of the war in 2023, said its director, Al Ghussein. Another small shipment came in December 2024, but nothing since.
The center has been able to provide artificial limbs for 250 cases over the course of the war, but supplies are running out, Al Ghussein said.
No prefabricated prosthetic legs or arms have entered, according to MAP’s Abu Saif, who said Israel does not ban them, but its procedures cause delays and “ultimately ignore them.”
Ibrahim Khalif wants a prosthetic right leg so he can get a job doing manual labor or cleaning houses to support his pregnant wife and children.
In January, he lost his leg when an Israeli airstrike hit Gaza City while he was out to get food.
“I used to be the provider for my children, but now I’m sitting here,” Khalif said. “I think about what I was and what I’ve become.”