Haneen al-Mabhouh sits in her wheelchair with her body and soul stained by the atrocities of war, but holding on to the shreds of hope of a restored family and walking someday. The 28-year-old mother lost her right leg above the knee when an Israeli airstrike hit her house in central Gaza in July of 2024, and that bomb hit her, squashing her under the rubble. The strike had taken away the lives of all four of her daughters, including her five-month-old baby, and left her husband in a very bad condition (severely burnt). “During the last year and a half, I have not been able to move, to live as other people. I have not had my children the last year and a half, I tell you, heavy of grief, heavy.”
Haneen is a case of the thousands of Palestinians in Gaza who have survived the conflict but have had their limbs destroyed by the past two years of Israeli bombardments. The World Health Organization estimates that there are between 5,000 and 6,000 amputated individuals in Gaza, one quarter of whom are children. Some struggle with acute problems in receiving prosthetic limbs, rehabilitation services, and high-tech care, and such a life is placed on hold.
The last order of prosthetic components was delivered recently, and it was the first major shipment since two years long. Previously, Israel had massively prevented the importation of off-the-shelf prosthetic limbs or materials with which to produce them, as Loay Abu Saif of Medical Aid to Palestinians and Nevin Al Ghussein of the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City stated. The Israeli military organization in charge of aiding, COGAT, was not responsive to inquiries about prosthodontic supplies to the war.
Haneen needs additional operations, bone graft and treatment which he can only get in other countries. Ten months ago she was put on medical evacuation list and has not been given the approval to leave Gaza.
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