Augusta Victoria Hospital houses many young Palestinians who don’t know when they will be able to go home
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Ali Jneina hardly talks any more. The eight-year-old cancer patient, who is glued to his iPad when not asleep, has lost the will to leave his room in Jerusalem’s Augusta Victoria Hospital.
He is embarrassed about losing his hair and about the weight he has gained because of chemotherapy. Most of all though, his mother says, Ali just wants to go home.
The little boy and 11 other patients in the children’s cancer ward are from Gaza.
Because of the devastating Israeli war in the Palestinian territory, which has killed more than 32,000 people since it started on October 7, they do not know when they will be able to go back.
Ali’s mother, Mai Jneina, is visibly exhausted as she sits by Ali’s bed, trying to keep her son’s spirits up. She also has to find ways to communicate with her husband and the couple’s two other children in Gaza.
“I don’t tell my husband about our son’s treatment. He just says he’s had enough and can’t stand it any more. So the pressure is all on me,” Mrs Jneina told media. “I don’t know if I’ll recognise my husband when I see him. He’s lost a lot of weight, as have my children.”
Augusta Victoria and a few other hospitals in Jerusalem have historically welcomed the sickest Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza, who lack access to advanced medical care at home.
They have now become temporary homes for the Gazans who were receiving treatment before the war broke out.
It is a massive challenge for the hospital, which normally hosts the patients and their guardians only for the duration of treatment.
Despite the unexpected difficulties, Dr Fadi Mizyed, the hospital’s CEO, says his staff will always prioritise patient well-being, particularly in this uniquely testing moment.
“They are not only fighting their disease now. They are fighting the war, the situation – they’re stressed the whole time, away from home,” he says.
“These are not the conditions in which a child should be treated. Two of the kids here have psychological problems now and are becoming less co-operative with staff.”
It falls to Dr Khadra Hasan Salami to try to keep the children’s treatment on course. She and her staff do their best to fill the ward with positive energy. Two Palestinian clowns even came to visit while media was at the hospital.
But nothing works on Ali, whose eyes stay glued to his iPad as he sits surrounded by teddy bears, paper Ramadan lanterns and the scooter he will get to ride again when he is strong enough.
A nurse recounts a story that illustrates the horror of his situation. One day Ali was talking to his sister in Gaza. He told her that he ate meat that day, which made her cry because she was so hungry.
“I’m sure Ali feels guilty thinking about how he’s in a ‘better’ situation,” Dr Salami explained.
“Ali has had anxiety attacks and is agitated. When he has a procedure now he loses his communication with us and gets angry.”
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