6/13/2024–|Last updated: 6/13/202410:27 PM (Mecca time)
Shahed Al-Qatti, who is among a group of Palestinians who were injured in the war in the Gaza Strip and are receiving medical care in Qatar, hopes that by next year she will be able to walk on her own using a prosthetic limb.
Last October, Al-Qatti’s house in Gaza was bombed. She and her husband fell into the street from the second floor. Later, she was forced to leave Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City when the Israeli army ordered its evacuation. There was no ambulance available to transport her.
The 23-year-old told Reuters from a hospital in Doha, “They (the Israeli army) forced us to leave using a wheelchair.”
She added, “God willing, next year I want to give up this and I want to depend on my condition. I mean, God willing, I hope they will install the prosthetic limb and I will give up the walker and these things and walk on my own again.”
My cat – whose left leg was amputated above the knee – is one of thousands of Palestinians who lost a limb after Israeli bombing or air strikes in Gaza.
At Hamad General Hospital in Doha, staff help her move using a walker. She says the best thing there is that they support her psychologically.
Many Palestinians, including children, were subjected to amputation due to the severity of their injuries during the Israeli military operation, which Israel says aims to eliminate the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and release Israeli prisoners held in Gaza.
1,500 injured people are being treated in Qatar
In December 2023, the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, launched an initiative to bring 1,500 injured Palestinians from Gaza to his country to receive treatment. So far, about 500 people have arrived.
“The story of our patients begins in Gaza,” said Sandro Rizzoli, medical director of trauma services at Hamad General Hospital. “The victims, most of them, were victims of bombings and other military activities.”
Wafa Abu Samaan (27 years old), another Palestinian receiving treatment in Qatar, was eight months pregnant when her house was bombed.
She says, “By God, my house was bombed, my husband and father-in-law were martyred, and my two daughters were injured. I was eight months pregnant, and I was injured on October 19 at 4 am, and then they transferred us to the Indonesian Hospital. I am a resident of the northern Beit Lahia project.”
She added, “I am now being treated in Qatar. I have a daughter who is also infected with me here. She was treated in Egypt and then came to complete her treatment here. I have an infected daughter in Gaza.”
She continued, “There is certainly no rest… Only my daughter, my sister and my sisters are left with me. My uncles were all martyred, as were my uncles, my husband, and my father-in-law… and my descendants are imprisoned… I mean, no one remained, and we have no homes, and we have nothing left, meaning… We are sitting here, but our mind and heart are with them.”
The ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip since October 7 has led to the death of more than 37,000 Palestinians and the injury of more than 85,000, according to the Ministry of Health in the Strip.
In January, the United Nations estimated that more than a thousand children had lost their legs. Gaza health authorities say the main center for prosthetic limbs in Gaza – a Qatar-funded hospital in Gaza City – was closed in the first months of the war after an Israeli raid.
