On board the mercy flight for young victims of war
THE shattered limbs, burnt skin and broken bones of the passengers on board the Etihad flight 0to Abu Dhabi depict the horrifying reality of Gaza’s destruction.
Dozens of patients, largely children, are being evacuated to the UAE to receive critical medical treatment on a commercial plane that has been converted into a flying hospital.
The Daily Mail was granted permission by the UAE authorities to join them on the Boeing 777, where we witnessed up close a scale of suffering that is difficult to comprehend.
These shocking pictures, which include a little boy who was shot at by the IDF in an ambulance, come after Israeli drone pilots this week killed three British war heroes dispensing aid in the territory.
Motasem Hanouna survived the bombing of his home in northern Gaza that killed his family. The six-year-old suffered a shattered leg and severe burns. A few weeks later, the ambulance he was travelling in was attacked by Israeli forces as he tried to reach medical facilities, killing the paramedic who was driving him.
This little boy is lucky to be alive, but the toll of the trauma he has been through is still unclear. Metal rods protrude out of Motasem’s left leg. His burns are badly infected and he needs skin grafts.
His parents and sister are dead and it has been four months since he could walk.
‘When he sees other kids playing football or walking around, playing and jumping, he starts crying,’ said his aunt Dunya, 29, who has left her own family behind to accompany him.
‘He asks me: “When will I be able to walk, to play football with them?” ’
Dunya has no idea when she will see her own children again. ‘ I had to accompany my nephew so he can get the medical treatment he needs to get back on his feet, because he has no one else. I had to leave my four children in Gaza.’
Patient Abdel-Rahman, 16, had to drag himself along the ground to safety when bullets shattered his pelvis. He and his cousin had tried to visit their homes in Khan Younis after being informed the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) had left the area. But troops remained and gunshots suddenly rang out. Abdel-Rahman’s cousin was shot dead, and it was too dangerous for paramedics to reach Abdel-Rahman.
‘So he crawled his way out, he crawled for almost 1.5 km. He kept crawling until he saw a young man riding a bicycle and he screamed for help,’ said his mother Suha Al-Issawi, 46, who was accompanying her son with her two younger children.
While Abdel-Rahman was receiving treatment in Al Nasser hospital, it came under siege by Israeli forces before being raided.
‘Abdel-Rahman was tied up and thrown into a dark room.
They turned off the lights, he wasn’t allowed to eat, drink or go to the bathroom. He cried day and night because of the pain,’ said his mother.
She said her son saw people being beaten by the Israeli troops, and was terrified that he would be next. He’s been left deeply traumatised.
Reem Hamouda, 30, was eight months pregnant when her
home was hit by an airstrike. Her father, brother, husband, three of her nephews and five of her neighbours, were all killed, she said.
Her right leg was amputated below the knee, her hip was fractured, she has serious burns and nerve damage. Reem’s baby girl was delivered but she survived for only a few minutes.
‘I have to turn my pillow over throughout the night because I sleep in tears,’ she said. Her son, who remains in Gaza, turned two last month.
Last week’s flight was the 15th medical evacuation to be organised by the UAE government since the war began following Hamas’s murderous attack on October 7 that killed 1,200 Israelis.
Since then, 33,000 Gazans have died and 75,000 injured, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Abdel-Rahman’s mother said the situation in Gaza is unbearable.
‘The people are exhausted. Hunger is ravaging them,’ she said. ‘People don’t know where to go any more - where to hide, where to take their children.’
Disembarking from the flight in Abu Dhabi, Ms Al-Issawi was visibly overwhelmed. Alone in a strange country with a very sick son, she faces a different battle.