Within the framework of the continuous and destroyed Israeli extermination war on Gaza for more than a year and a half, the numbers, suffering and pain of amputee, most of them children and women, especially with the acute shortage of medical equipment and tools needed to manufacture prostheses, due to the continued suffocating siege on the sector.
Among them is the Palestinian Raed Abu Al -Kass, who sits inside the center of the artificial limbs and paralysis in Gaza City, pending his role in receiving physical therapy and physical rehabilitation service to use the industrial party, after his foot in Israeli bombing was amputated while practicing his work in operating water wells.
The story of Abu Al -Kass, one of the employees of the Gaza municipality, embodies the size of the humanitarian tragedy left by the Israeli war. His right foot was amputated and two of his colleagues were martyred. While the neighbors and his sons were trying to rescue him amid destruction and smoke, the planes lasted again, killing one of his sons and the other was injured with severe injuries that led to amputation of his foot later.
The pioneer of the events of that day remembers with a voice suffocating with pain, saying: I used to open water valves for citizens, and I thought that my work in the service of people would protect me, but the occupation did not leave us any safety. They targeted us while I was isolated, my feet were amputated in front of my eyes, my son was martyred, and Mahmoud was injured that changed his life forever.
As for Mahmoud, who dreamed of becoming a professional football player for the young Al -Shujaiya club, he narrated his story to the Anatolia correspondent, with a sad voice: I was playing football daily, my dream was to wear the club’s shirt and my family’s happiest, but the occupation destroyed my dream and amputation of my feet.
He added: Now I sit on a wheelchair and just dream to ride an advanced industrial party that helps me stand again, until the eyes of my father whose foot amputated.
During the past months, Raed and Mahmoud underwent a large number of surgeries inside the Baptist Hospital, in light of difficult medical conditions and a severe shortage of capabilities, and industrial limbs were installed for them through the center of the prostheses, but the lack of equipment and technical cadres affect the work of the center.
Today, the father and the son spend several hours a day inside the center of the parties, they are trained to use their industrial limbs, receive rehabilitation and training sessions, and in the midst of this arduous journey, they are limited to one dream: traveling abroad to install advanced industrial limbs that enable them to restore part of their normal lives.
In this regard, Raed said, looking at his son Mahmoud with two sad eyes: I have nothing left for my children except Mahmoud, and my wife, who bears the greatest burden in our care, and we dreamed of riding light parties through which we can help each other and live in dignity.
Mahmoud interrupts him, saying: I dream of traveling, I want to run again, to return to play the ball even in a simple way with my friends (..), the occupation destroyed my dreams, but he did not destroy my faith that we will return to life.
Double numbers
The Gaza Strip is witnessing a great escalation in the number of people with amputation cases as a result of the devastating Israeli genocide since October 7, 2023, amid a severe shortage of medical equipment and tools needed to manufacture prostheses, due to the continuous closure of the crossings and preventing the entry of basic supplies.
4,700 amputations were recorded due to the Israeli war, as part of the Sahiti program lists, which are implemented by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in partnership with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Center for the Artificial Parties and Paralysis of the Municipality of Gaza, in all governorates of the sector, according to the media and public relations official at the center, Hosni Muhanna.
Muhanna stressed to Anatolia, that the number of amputation cases registered since the beginning of the Israeli war has been caused by the extensive use of explosive weapons and the direct targeting of civilians.
He said: The center of the prostheses has received about 600 cases of amputee since the beginning of the Israeli aggression, and they are pursued periodically through specialists and technical crews.
He added that, since the beginning of the war, the center was able to install industrial limbs for about 100 injured, and also delivered dozens of prosthetic devices and wheelchairs to the needy.
Muhanna pointed to the increasing demand for the services of the center daily.
He warned that the continuation of the war will lead to a catastrophic number of cases, especially since 48% of new amputations are for women, and 20% for children, which seriously exacerbates the humanitarian conditions.
Severe shortage
The media and public relations official pointed out that the center suffers from a lack of raw materials for the manufacture of prostheses, in addition to an urgent need for medical devices, equipment and spare parts necessary for the existing equipment, which hinders the provision of services effectively to the injured.
Muhanna indicated that the staff operating in the center, which works under severe pressure and with limited capabilities, is struggling daily to meet the needs of the increasing numbers of the injured, with the need to double the human cadres to keep pace with this significant increase.
320 cases of physical therapy are currently under the center of prostheses and paralysis, where physical and rehabilitation services are provided, follow -up to the composition of prostheses and periodic maintenance, according to Muhanna.
In the beginning of last March, Israel escalated its crimes by taking an arbitrary decision to close all the crossings leading to the Strip, and preventing the introduction of humanitarian and relief aid and fuel trucks completely.
On March 18, Israel dismissed the ceasefire agreement and the exchange of prisoners in force since January 19, and resumed the war of genocide on the Gaza Strip, despite the commitment of Hamas to all the terms of the agreement.
The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government caused the agreement and the failure to complete his stages to keep the Israeli detainees to be families with Hamas, as the movement requires the war to stop the war and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.
With absolute American support, Israel has committed since October 7, 2023, a group extermination in Gaza that left more than 170,000 martyrs and wounded Palestinians, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing.