Hospital in Jordan offers injured Gazans hope for recovery

Karam Nawjaa, 17, was so badly injured when an Israeli strike hit his home in Gaza nearly a year ago that his own cousin, pulling him from the rubble, did not recognise him.

After rushing Karam to hospital he returned to continue searching for his cousin all night in the rubble.

In that strike on Feb.14, 2024, Karam lost his mother, a sister and two brothers. As well as receiving serious burns to his face and body, he lost the ability to use his arms and hands.

Now, the burns are largely healed and he is slowly regaining the use of his limbs after months of treatment at a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in the Jordanian capital Amman which operates a programme of reconstructive surgery.

“I only remember that on that day, February 14, there was a knock on our door… I opened it, my brother came in, and after that… (I remember) nothing,” he said.

Karam Nwajaa undergoes occupational therapy, with therapist Marwan Abu Rumman, at the Reconstructive Surgery Hospital of the MSF in Amman. Reuters

“Before the war I was studying, and thank God, I was an outstanding student,” Karam said, adding that his dream had been to become a dentist. Now he does not think about the future.

“What happened, happened… you feel that all your ambitions have been shattered, that what happened to you has destroyed you.”

Heartbreaking stories

Karam is one of many patients from Gaza being treated at Amman’s Specialized Hospital for Reconstructive Surgery, Al Mowasah Hospital. He shares a room there with his younger sister and their father.

“All these patients are war victims… with complex injuries, complex burns… They need very long rehabilitation services, both surgical but also physical and mental,” said Moeen Mahmood Shaief, head of the MSF mission in Jordan.

Palestinian student Shahed Tahrawi, 16, who lost her father and brother and left Gaza with her aunt while her mother stayed taking care of the family, undergoes physiotherapy with physiotherapist Ruba Alhelo, at the Reconstructive Surgery Hospital in Amman. Reuters

“The stories around those patients are heartbreaking, a lot of them have lost their families” and require huge support to be reintegrated into normal life, he added.

Israel’s 15-month offensive in Gaza has killed almost 47,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas-run Health Ministry figures, and left the coastal enclave a wasteland of rubble that will take years to rebuild. Most of the population was displaced.

Eyad Kalab, 17, who was injured in his leg from a bullet on March 5, 2024, studies with the help of his mother Sahar, 39, at the Reconstructive Surgery Hospital. Reuters