Gaza Child Amputees Get New Limbs But Can't Shake War Trauma
Faizan Hashmi Published December 28, 2024 | 08:02 PM
Layan Al Nasr, 14, thought she would never walk again after both of her legs were amputated following an Israeli bombing in Gaza one year ago
Abu Dhabi, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Dec, 2024) Layan Al Nasr, 14, thought she would never walk again after both of her legs were amputated following an Israeli bombing in Gaza one year ago.
Now, she stands proudly on artificial limbs fitted in the United Arab Emirates. But fear for her family, still living under the attacks, gnaws away.
"When I was told about prosthetics when I arrived, I didn't even know they existed," she jokes, taking a few steps supported by crutches.
She is able to smile as she describes her operations, rehabilitation and her new found hope. But emotion eventually catches up with her.
"What scares me today is losing my brothers, my sisters and my father," she confides, bursting into tears.
Nasr is one of more than 2,000 wounded or seriously ill Palestinians flown with their closest relatives to the oil-rich UAE during the Israel-Hamas war.
Plucked from shattered Gaza, much of it in ruins, they are lucky to escape a conflict that has left more than 45,000 people dead in the Palestinian territory.
However, the survivors brought to the UAE are haunted by their memories of war and their terror of losing loved ones, despite their new existence in calm, quiet Abu Dhabi.
"I don't care what happens to me, the important thing is that nothing happens to them," insists Nasr.
