For many Palestinians injured in Gaza, the guns may have fallen silent, but daily life remains frozen. Survivors of airstrikes and shelling say they are still waiting for treatment, mobility, and a chance to rebuild their lives, as limited aid and slow evacuations keep thousands in limbo.
Sitting in her wheelchair, Haneen al-Mabhouh dreams of rebuilding her family and of walking again. With one leg amputated, her life in Gaza remains on hold as she waits for permission to travel abroad for further treatment.
An Israeli airstrike in July 2024 destroyed her home in central Gaza while she and her family were asleep. All four of her daughters were killed, including her 5-month-old baby. Her husband suffered severe burns. Al-Mabhouh’s legs were crushed under the rubble, forcing doctors to amputate her right leg above the knee.
“For the past year and a half, I have been unable to move around, to live like others. For the past year and a half, I have been without children,” she said while speaking at her parents’ home.
Prosthetic shortages and stalled care
The 2-month-old ceasefire has brought little relief to thousands of Palestinians who suffered amputations during nearly two years of bombardment. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates there are between 5,000 and 6,000 amputees from the war, with children making up 25%.
Those who lost limbs are struggling to adapt, facing a severe shortage of prosthetic limbs and lengthy delays in medical evacuations out of Gaza.
The WHO said a shipment of essential prosthetic supplies recently entered Gaza, marking what appears to be the first significant delivery in the past two years.
Previously, Israel allowed almost no ready-made prosthetic limbs or materials needed to manufacture them into Gaza since the war began, according to Loay Abu Saif, head of the disability programme at Medical Aid for Palestinians, and Nevin Al Ghussein, acting director of the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City, the outlet reported.
COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for coordinating aid, did not respond to questions about how many prosthetic supplies had entered Gaza during the war or its policies on such items.
Al-Mabhouh said she was asleep with her baby girl in her arms when the strike hit their home in Nuseirat. For weeks while recovering in hospital, she did not know her children had been killed.
She underwent multiple surgeries. Her hand still struggles to move, while her remaining leg is shattered and held together with rods. She needs a bone graft and other treatments available only outside Gaza. Although she was placed on a medical evacuation list 10 months ago, she has yet to receive permission to leave.
Now living at her parents’ house, she needs help changing clothes and cannot even hold a pen. Grief over her daughters weighs heavily on her. “I never got to hear her say ‘mama’, see her first tooth or watch her take her first steps,” she said of her baby.
She says she dreams of having another child but cannot do so until she receives treatment. “It’s my right to live, to have another child, to regain what I lost, to walk, just to walk again,” she said. “Now my future is paralysed. They destroyed my dreams.”
Medical evacuations remain slow
The ceasefire has barely increased the pace of medical evacuations for the 16,500 Palestinians the UN says are waiting for vital treatment abroad, including amputees and patients with chronic illnesses or severe wounds.
As of December 1, 235 patients had been evacuated since the ceasefire began in October, averaging just under five a day. In the months before, the rate was about three a day.
Israel said last week it was ready to allow patients and other Palestinians to leave Gaza through the Israeli-held Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt. However, it remains uncertain whether this will happen, as Egypt, which controls the other side of the crossing, has said Rafah must also be opened for Palestinians entering Gaza, as outlined in the ceasefire agreement.
Dr Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, told The Associated Press that the backlog is due to a lack of countries willing to host evacuated patients. He said new medical evacuation routes are needed, particularly to the Israeli-occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, where hospitals are prepared to receive patients.
For those still waiting, daily life has ground to a halt.
Yassin Marouf lies in a tent in central Gaza, his left foot amputated and his right leg barely held together with rods. The 23-year-old and his brother were hit by Israeli shelling in May as they returned from visiting their home in northern Gaza, which their family had been forced to flee. His brother was killed, and Marouf lay bleeding as a stray dog attacked his injured leg.
Doctors say his right leg will also need to be amputated unless he can travel abroad for surgery that might save it. Marouf said he cannot afford painkillers and is unable to visit the hospital regularly to have his bandages changed as required. “If I want to go to the bathroom, I need two or three people to carry me,” he said.
Mohamed al-Naggar had been studying for an IT degree at the University of Palestine before the war. Seven months ago, shrapnel struck his left leg during airstrikes on the house where his family was sheltering. Doctors amputated his leg above the knee. His right leg was also badly injured, and shrapnel remains lodged in parts of his body. Despite four surgeries and physical therapy, the 21-year-old al-Naggar is still unable to move around.
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