GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (news agencies) — Five-year-old Sila Abu Aqlan curled her lip in concentration as she practiced walking for the first time on a prosthetic leg at a clinic in Gaza City. The foot of the new leg had a little pink sneaker with a lacy frill, matching her pink hoodie.
It has been nearly 15 months since the little girl’s leg was amputated after it was left severely burned from an Israeli airstrike. Finally, she is being fit for a prosthetic.
One of the most shocking sights in Gaza’s war has been the thousands of children with amputated limbs from Israel’s bombardment. The U.N.’s humanitarian aid organization OCHA called it the “largest cohort of child amputees in modern history.”
Throughout the 17-month war, supplies and services for children and adults with amputations have fallen far short of demand. Gaza’s ceasefire that began in mid-January offered a window for aid agencies to bring in an increased number of prosthetic limbs, wheelchairs, crutches and other devices.
Still, it only covered about 20% of the total need, said Loay Abu Saif, head of a disability program run by the aid group Medical Aid for Palestine, or Mnews agencies.
The window slammed shut when Israel barred entry of all medical supplies as well as food, fuel and other aid on March 2. Israel’s resumpton of its military campaign last week, killing hundreds of Palestinians, has only added to the ranks of amputees.
With help limited, children wrestle with the psychological pain of losing a limb along with other traumas.
Sila’s mother, father and sisters were all killed in an airstrike on her home in December 2023. Sila suffered severe burns to her right leg. A month of treatment had little effect, and Sila would scream in excruciating pain, her aunt Yasmine al-Ghofary said. Doctors amputated her leg above the knee.
“I try as much as I can to make her happy. But the truth is, there’s only so much she can be happy. Pain is pain, and amputation is amputation,” al-Ghofary said.
Sila sees other girls playing and tries to keep up with them using her walker but falls down. “She says, ’Why am I like this? Why am I not like them?” said al-Ghofary.
In October 2023, 11-year-old Reem lost her hand when an airstrike hit nearby as her family fled their home in Gaza City.
Reem can no longer dress on her own, brush her hair or tie her shoes. She gets angry and hits her siblings if she can’t find someone to help her, her mother said. Other times, she isolates herself and just watches other children playing.
“Once Reem told her dad that she wished to die,” said her mother, who goes by the traditional name, Umm Reem. “In another instance, we were talking about meat, and she said, ‘Slaughter me like a sheep,’ and she was laughing.”
Some 3,000 to 4,000 children in Gaza had suffered amputations as of November 2024, according to Jamal al-Rozzi and Hussein ِAbu Mansour, two prominent experts with rehabilitation programs in the territory who spoke with media.
Up to 17,500 adults and children suffered severe limb injuries, leaving them in need of rehabilitation and assistance, the World Health Organization estimated in September.
Throughout the war, hospitals lacked medicines that could have averted amputations. Doctors describes cutting off limbs because of infections that should have been easily treated.
In its campaign in Gaza, Israel has struck homes and shelters with families inside almost daily.
Gaza’s Health Ministry on Monday put out a list of the names of more than 15,000 children, 17 and younger, killed by Israel’s offensive. The list included nearly 5,000 children younger than 6, including 876 infants who had not reached a year in age.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians of all ages and wounded more than 113,000, according to the ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. Nearly 90% of the population of some 2.3 million have been displaced, and vast areas of Gaza have been destroyed.
Israel launched the campaign vowing to destroy Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 others. Israel says it is targeting Hamas and blames the group for civilian deaths because it operates in residential areas.
United Arab Emirates Dirham Exchange Rate
