“I’m scared, Mama,” trembling voices and a body shaking with fear at every explosion, little Diala encapsulates the double suffering endured by the wounded and people with disabilities in the Gaza Strip. Amid the ongoing Israeli war, the suffering extends beyond bombing and displacement, crushing vulnerable bodies and souls searching for the most basic necessities of life and medical treatment.
Diala suffers from Down syndrome and a congenital heart defect accompanied by severe pulmonary hypertension. She was supposed to leave the Strip before the war began to undergo life-saving open-heart surgery, but the closure of the crossings and the escalating violence prevented her travel, according to her mother in a report by Al Jazeera Mubasher.
The mother describes her daughter’s condition with every missile fired by the Israeli occupation forces: Diala suffers seizures and her body turns blue, clinging to her mother in shock and terror.
Fear wasn’t her only tragedy; hunger was also a constant companion. Her mother recounts how she used to heat water in empty pots to make her daughter believe food was cooking, hoping to ease her hunger. Today, Diala finds herself without medication and without a specialized center to address her educational, speech, and developmental needs.
Not far from Diala’s grief, young Sarah Imad Al-Madhoun speaks of the tragedy that befell her family in Al-Bureij camp. On June 3, 2024, their home was directly targeted by a bombing, killing her brother and several relatives, and leaving her, her mother, and her sisters with severe injuries.
Sarah, who now sits in a wheelchair, says she suffered severe bleeding and her blood count dropped to dangerously low levels. She was fitted with a temporary external fixator, as she suffers from severe bone loss in both legs and urgently needs bone and joint replacements.
For her part, her mother, Fadwa Al-Madhoun, recounts the details of the tragedy that resulted in the death of her son and grandchildren, and her own severe fractures, requiring eight surgeries without improvement.
Fadwa lives her days taking strong painkillers to soothe unbearable pain, while she dreams of the crossings being opened so that her three daughters can travel, all of whom need surgical interventions and bone transplants that are not available in Gaza’s dilapidated hospitals.
