NUSEIRAT, Gaza Strip (AP) — Sitting in her wheelchair, Haneen al-Mabhouh dreams of rebuilding her family, of building a new baby. She dreams of walking again. But with her leg gone, 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 as she and her family slept. Her four 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 her right leg above the knee.
“For the last year and a half, I have not been able to move, live like others. For the last year and a half, I have been childless,” she said while speaking at her parents’ house.
The two-month ceasefire in Gaza has been slow to bring 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 around 5,000 to 6,000 war amputees, 25% of them children.
Those who have lost limbs are struggling to adapt, facing a shortage of prosthetic limbs and long delays in medical evacuations out of Gaza.
The WHO said that a shipment of essential prosthetic supplies recently entered Gaza. This appears to be the first significant shipment for the last two years.
Previously, Israel had left almost no limbs or prosthetic material ready to manufacture limbs since the war began, according to Loay Abu Saif, the head of the disability program at the 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 came in during the war or about its policy regarding such supplies.
‘My future is paralyzed’
Al-Mabhouh was sleeping with her daughter in her arms when the strike hit their home in Nuseirat, she said. For several weeks while she was recovering in the hospital, al-Mabhouh had no idea that her children had been killed.
She has undergone several operations. Her hand still has difficulty moving. Her remaining leg remains shattered, held together by rods. She needs bone grafts and other treatments that are only available outside of Gaza.
She was put on the list for medical evacuation 10 months ago but has not yet obtained permission to leave Gaza.
She waits for her chance to go, live in her parents’ house. She needs help to change her clothes and can’t even hold a pen, and is overwhelmed with grief for her children. “I never heard her say ‘mama’, see her first tooth or see her take her first steps,” she said about her baby.
She dreams of having a new child but she can’t until she gets treatment.
“It is my right to live, to have another child, to regain what I lost, to walk, to walk again,” she said. “Now my future is paralyzed. They destroyed my dreams.”
Medical evacuations remain slow
The ceasefire has brought barely any increase in medical evacuations for the 16,500 Palestinians the UN says are waiting to get vital treatment abroad — not just amputees, but patients suffering from many types of chronic conditions or wounds.
As of December 1, 235 patients have been evacuated since the ceasefire began in October, just under five a day. In the months before this, the average was around three a day.
Israel last week said 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 this will happen because Egypt, which controls the other side of the crossing, demands that Rafah be opened also for the Palestinians to enter Gaza as requested under the cease-fire agreement.
Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, told The Associated Press that the backlog is caused by the lack of countries to host the evacuated patients. He said that new medevac routes must be opened, especially to the West Bank and East Jerusalem occupied by Israel, where hospitals are ready to receive patients.
For those who are waiting, life stops
Yassin Marouf is in a tent in the center of Gaza, his left leg amputated, his right leg barely held together by rods.
The 23-year-old and his brother were hit by Israeli gunfire in May as they returned from a visit to their home in northern Gaza that their family had been forced to flee. His brother was killed. Marouf lay bleeding on the ground, as a vicious dog attacked his mangled left leg.
The doctors say that his right leg will also need to be amputated, unless he can travel abroad for operations that can save him. Marouf said that he cannot afford painkillers and cannot go to the hospital regularly to have the 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 was pursuing a degree in IT 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. The doctors amputated his leg above the knee. His right leg was also seriously injured and shrapnel remained in parts of his body.
Despite four surgeries and physical therapy, al-Naggar, 21, is unable to move.
“I would like to travel abroad and wear prosthetics 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 have suffered life-changing injuries in the war, including amputations, brain trauma, spinal cord injuries and severe burns, the WHO said in an October report.
The situation has “improved a little” for those with assistance needs but “there is still a great general lack of assistance products,” such as wheelchairs, walkers and crutches. Gaza has only eight prosthetists capable of manufacturing and attaching artificial limbs, the WHO said in a statement to the AP.
The Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City, one of the two prosthetic centers still operating in the territory, received a shipment of material for the manufacture of limbs just before the war began in 2023, said its director, Al Ghussein. Another small delivery came in December 2024, but nothing since then.
The center was able to provide artificial limbs for 250 cases during the war, but supplies are running out, Al Ghussein said.
No pre-made prosthetic limbs or arms came in, according to MAP’s Abu Saif, who said Israel does not ban them, but its procedures cause delays and “they end up ignoring it.”
Ibrahim Khalif wants a prosthetic right leg so he can find 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 getting food.
“I used to be the provider for my kids, but now I’m here,” Khalif said. “I think about how I was and what I’ve become.”