Psychological wounds hard to heal for Gaza war victims
On a floating hospital near Gaza, doctors aren’t just treating physical wounds — they’re providing emotional support too for children and adults haunted by months of terrifying war.
Child amputees and elderly people in wheelchairs are among the patients on the converted ship off Arish, northern Egypt, funded and operated by the oil-rich United Arab Emirates.
About 2,400 people have been treated at the temporary facility, whose rows of tents below deck hold about 100 patients at a time, says deputy medical director Abdullah al-Zahmi.
If that only scratches the surface of the needs of Gaza, it reflects the difficulty of providing aid for the sealed and bombarded territory.
More than 38,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war broke out nearly nine months ago, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Nine-year-old Yazan is one of those traumatised by the war, after being brought to the hospital about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Gaza without his parents and having a leg amputated because of his wounds.
Zahmi jokes with the boy, asks how his parents are doing in Gaza and assures him he will soon have a prosthetic leg fitted.
“The traditional relationship between the patient and the doctor” has dissolved, the doctor tells AFP.
“Every day we see each other, we speak comfortably, and we care about their needs, problems, and psychological pain.”
– Amputee wants to ‘play football’ –
Yazan’s parents were not allowed to accompany him through the Rafah crossing into Egypt, Zahmi says, without giving further details. The route was closed by Israeli forces in early May.
The boy’s condition “was initially a concern for us, as dealing with him was difficult because he was emotional and in need of his mother and father”.