<\/p>\n
KHAN YUNIS: Layan al-Baz cries in agony when the effect fades of the painkillers she receives after her legs were amputated \u2014 the result of an Israeli strike on Gaza.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want a false leg,\u201d the 13-year-old Palestinian says.<\/p>\n
The impoverished Pales\u00adtinian territory, under a crippling Israeli-led blockade for years and besieged since Oct 7, suffers severe shortages of food, water and fuel, and medical supplies are scarce.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want them to put my legs back, they can do it,\u201d Baz says in desperation from her bed at the hospital\u2019s paediatric ward. Every time she opens her eyes as the painkillers wear off, she sees her bandaged stumps.<\/p>\n
Her mother, Lamia al-Baz, 47, says Layan was wounded last week in a strike on Al-Qarara district of Khan Yunis, part of Israel\u2019s unrelenting military campaign. Lamia says two of her daughters, Ikhlas and Khitam, and two grandchildren including a newborn baby were killed when the Israeli strike hit Ikhlas\u2019s home. The family were there to support Ikhlas who had just given birth.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir bodies were in shreds,\u201d says Lamia, who had to identify her daughters\u2019 bodies at a morgue. \u201cI identified Khitam by her earrings and Ikhlas by her toes.\u201d Layan, her face and arms dotted with injuries, asks: \u201cHow will I return to school when my friends walk and I can\u2019t?\u201d Lamia tries to reassure her: \u201cI will be by your side. It will all be fine. You still have a future ahead of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019m still alive\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n At the hospital\u2019s burns unit, 14-year-old Lama al-Agha and her sister Sara, 15, lie in adjacent beds. They are treated after an Oct 12 strike that killed Sara\u2019s twin Sama and brother Yahya, 12, says their mother, sitting between the two hospital beds and struggling to hold back tears. Stitches and burn scars are visible on Lama\u2019s half-shaved head and her forehead.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they transferred me here, I asked the nurses to help me sit up and I discovered that my leg was amputated,\u201d the 14-year-old recalls.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been through a lot of pain but I thank God that I\u2019m still alive.\u201d Lama is determined not to let her injury decide her future. \u201cI\u2019ll get an artificial leg and continue my studies, so I can achieve my dream of becoming a doctor. I will be strong for me and for my family,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Hospital director Nahed Abu Taaema explains that due to the massive number of casualties and dwindling resou\u00adrces, medics are often left with no choice but to amputate limbs to prevent life-threatening complications.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to choose between saving a patient\u2019s life or putting it at risk while trying to save their injured leg,\u201d says Abu Taaema.<\/p>\n Sporting a green football jersey and matching shorts, Ahmad Abu Shahmah, 14, uses crutches to walk around the ruins of his family\u2019s home in Khan Yunis. Now surrounded by several of his cousins, Abu Shahmah is at the courtyard where he used to play football. But the building was destroyed in a strike that killed six of his cousins and an aunt.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I woke up (after surgery) I asked my brother, \u2018where is my leg?\u2019\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n \u201cHe lied to me and said it was right there, and that I couldn\u2019t feel it because of the anaesthetics.\u201d The following day, \u201cmy cousin told me the truth\u201d, says Abu Shahmah.<\/p>\n \u201cI cried a lot. The first thing I thought about was that I will no longer be able to walk or play football like I would every day. I signed up to an academy one week before the war.\u201d Abu Shahmah supports FC Barcelona, while his cousins are die-hard fans of Real Madrid.<\/p>\n One of them, Farid Abu Shahmah, says that if he \u201ccould turn back time and return Ahmad his leg, I\u2019d be ready to give up Real and become a Barcelona fan like him.\u201d<\/p>\n Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KHAN YUNIS: Layan al-Baz cries in agony when the effect fades of the painkillers she receives after her legs were amputated \u2014 the result of an Israeli strike on Gaza. \u201cI don\u2019t want a false leg,\u201d the 13-year-old Palestinian says. The impoverished Pales\u00adtinian territory, under a crippling Israeli-led blockade for years and besieged since Oct […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/11\/6546dffbdbbc9.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}