By Imad Creidi
DOHA (Reuters) – Shahed Al-Kotati, a part of a bunch of Palestinians struck down by the struggle in Gaza who’re receiving medical care in Qatar, hopes that by subsequent yr, she’ll be capable of stroll on her personal utilizing a prosthetic limb.
In October, Al-Kotati’s dwelling in Gaza was bombed. She and her husband fell to the road from the second ground. Later, she was pressured from Gaza Metropolis’s Al Shifa Hospital when Israeli forces ordered its evacuation. No ambulance was obtainable.
“They (the Israeli military) forced us to go by wheelchair,” the 23-year-old instructed Reuters from the security of a Doha hospital.
“I hope they’ll attach the prosthetic limb so that I can let go of the walker and all these things and walk on my own again. God willing.”
Al-Kotati, whose left leg was amputated above the knee, is likely one of the many Palestinians who misplaced a limb after Israeli air strikes or shelling in Gaza.
At Doha’s Hamad Common Hospital, the workers assist her to maneuver round with a walker. The perfect factor right here, she says, is that they assist her psychologically.Â
Many Palestinians, together with youngsters, have had limbs amputated due to the severity of their wounds through the Israeli offensive, which Israel says is meant to get rid of the Palestinian militant group Hamas and safe the discharge of the Israeli hostages they maintain in Gaza.
In December 2023, Qatar’s emir launched an initiative to carry 1,500 wounded Palestinians from Gaza to Qatar for remedy. To this point, round 500 have arrived.Â
“This story of our patients starts in Gaza. The victims – most of them – have been victims of bombings and other military activities,” mentioned Sandro Rizoli, Medical Trauma Director at Hamad Common Hospital.
The struggle erupted when Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 folks and taking about 250 hostage, based on Israeli tallies.
Israel launched an air, floor and sea assault on the Palestinian territory. Greater than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed and almost 85,000 injured in Israel’s army offensive, based on the Gaza well being ministry.
By January, the U.N. estimated that greater than 1,000 youngsters had misplaced legs. Gaza’s important prosthetic limb centre, a Qatari-funded hospital in Gaza Metropolis, was shuttered within the early months of the struggle after an Israeli strike, Gaza well being authorities say.
Wafaa Abou Samaan, 27, one other Palestinian being handled in Qatar, was eight months pregnant when her home was struck.
“My husband was martyred, my father-in-law as well. My daughters were injured, two of them,” she mentioned. Considered one of her daughters can be receiving remedy in Qatar. One other injured daughter stays in Gaza.Â
Abou Samaan misplaced her proper leg under the knee and her decrease left arm was amputated. Her child was delivered safely in Egypt in December, earlier than they had been flown to Qatar.
“We have no one left, we don’t have a home, nothing,” she mentioned. “We are sitting here, but our minds and hearts are there (in Gaza) with them.”