\u2018The Israeli army made me choose between my prosthetic limb and wheelchair; I returned to Gaza without my limb,\u2019 man tells Anadolu Over 6,000 amputations recorded by Palestinian Health Ministry and International Committee of the Red Cross during Israel\u2019s genocidal war in Gaza<\/p>\n
After undergoing lengthy medical treatment in Egypt, elderly Palestinian Mahmoud Fouad al-Dahshan returned to the Gaza Strip with hopes of walking again with a prosthetic limb to replace the foot he lost during Israel\u2019s three-year genocide in the enclave.<\/p>\n
But those hopes were dashed when Israeli soldiers took his prosthetic limb. Then, the Turkish Red Crescent gave him renewed hope of walking again.<\/p>\n
Dahshan, 64, was injured in early November 2023 when an Israeli bombardment struck his family\u2019s home in Gaza City\u2019s Zeitoun neighborhood.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Anadolu, he said Israeli soldiers gave him a choice while he was returning from Egypt in May: surrender his prosthetic limb or the wheelchair he relied on. He chose the wheelchair and returned to Gaza without his prosthesis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Israeli army arbitrarily confiscated the prosthetic limb without giving any reason or explaining why it posed a threat to them,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Life-changing injuries <\/p>\n
Dahshan\u2019s injuries were so severe that doctors had to amputate his left foot. The lack of medical equipment and supplies, compounded by the Israeli blockade, prevented doctors from providing the treatment he needed.<\/p>\n
He has since spent nearly three years living with the consequences. During that time, he traveled to Egypt for treatment, where he was fitted with a prosthetic limb to compensate, at least in part, for his amputated foot.<\/p>\n
For Dahshan, the prosthetic was more than a medical device. It offered him a way to regain his mobility and reduce his dependence on others. But that hope disappeared when he was forced to leave the limb behind on his return to Gaza.<\/p>\n
He said another prosthetic limb belonging to an injured woman traveling with him was also confiscated and never returned, \u201cso she entered Gaza as she had left it.\u201d <\/p>\n
A new journey of hope <\/p>\n
At the Prosthetics and Orthotics Center affiliated with Gaza Municipality, Dahshan has begun a new journey to regain what he lost, this time with support from the Turkish Red Crescent.<\/p>\n
As technicians took measurements in preparation for making him a new prosthetic limb, Dahshan held on to a simple but deeply meaningful hope: to stand and walk again without a wheelchair and reclaim part of the independence he lost with his injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came here hoping to have a new prosthetic limb fitted to replace the one the (Israeli) occupation took from me and to begin a new treatment journey to help me walk and move without needing a wheelchair,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Dahshan thanked the Turkish Red Crescent for supporting the project, which provides prosthetic limbs to the wounded and amputees in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n
\u201cI extend my deepest thanks to the brothers at the Turkish Red Crescent who contributed to supporting this project to help the wounded of the Gaza Strip, and I ask Allah to reward them with goodness,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Two-phase project <\/p>\n
Saadi Dabour, director of the Turkish Red Crescent\u2019s office in Gaza, told Anadolu that the project aims primarily to \u201chelp people who have lost limbs regain mobility and carry out their daily activities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dabour said prosthetic limbs were fitted for 10 injured people during August and September, while a second phase covering another 10 cases is scheduled to begin the following month.<\/p>\n
But fitting a prosthetic limb is only part of the challenge. Dabour said the project faces \u201csevere shortages of the raw materials and essential components needed to manufacture prosthetic limbs in the Gaza Strip.\u201d
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He described the shortages as a \u201cmajor obstacle\u201d for thousands of amputees who need rehabilitation and prosthetic services at a time when demand for such care continues to grow.<\/p>\n
To help meet some of these needs, the Prosthetics and Orthotics Center in Gaza partnered with the Turkish Red Crescent on a humanitarian project aimed at helping amputees regain mobility and return to their daily lives. <\/p>\n
More than 6,000 amputations <\/p>\n
The cases supported by the project represent only a small part of the wider crisis facing amputees in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Husni Muhanna, director of public relations at the Prosthetics and Orthotics Center affiliated with Gaza Municipality, said the center has continued providing services to wounded people and amputees since the beginning of the war, despite the severe conditions in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n
Muhanna told Anadolu that more than 6,000 amputations had been recorded in the Sehhaty system affiliated with the Palestinian Health Ministry and the International Committee of the Red Cross during the war.<\/p>\n
The center also faces shortages of the raw materials needed to manufacture prosthetic limbs and provide its services amid restrictions on bringing supplies into Gaza, including plaster and other essential materials, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenges are significant because of the blockade and shortage of equipment, but the center\u2019s staff continues working with tremendous efforts to reach as many wounded and amputees as possible,\u201d Muhanna said.<\/p>\n
He said the partnership will support around 20 amputees by providing them with suitable prosthetic limbs in two phases. <\/p>\n
From the tent to the streets <\/p>\n
At another part of the center, young Uday Abu Warda was undergoing physical therapy and walking exercises with a prosthetic limb fitted during the project\u2019s first phase.<\/p>\n
For Uday, the prosthetic limb is more than a means of movement; it \u201chas become a dividing line between two stages of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
He told Anadolu that his leg was amputated on Oct. 10, 2023 following an Israeli bombardment in the early days of the war, when Gaza lacked the equipment and medical capabilities needed to provide prosthetic services.<\/p>\n
Abu Warda was unable to resume a normal life for some time before benefiting from the prosthetics project.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks to God and then to the efforts of the Turkish Red Crescent, which provided me with this prosthetic limb. I have returned to life, and here I am carrying out many aspects of my daily life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter I had the prosthetic limb fitted, I felt a great improvement in my work and activities … Now I can go out and walk with my friends, after I had been confined to the tent all the time,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Since Oct. 8, 2023, Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians and injured over 175,000, while 90% of the enclave\u2019s infrastructure has been destroyed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018The Israeli army made me choose between my prosthetic limb and wheelchair; I returned to Gaza without my…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43,180804],"class_list":["post-633878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-sitekeywords"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}