A burn victim
Mohamed Abu Rteinah, 12, doesn’t remember much of what happened when a blast crushed his home Oct. 24. One minute, he was having tea for breakfast as his grandmother read the Quran. The next minute, he was running and screaming, his limbs seemingly on fire, he said.
His mother, Ula Faraj, 33, said she recoiled in horror when she first saw the burns that cover about 30% of his legs. His 8-year-old sister, Batool, had similar injuries.
It was unclear who fired the munition that struck their home in the southern city of Rafah, although Gaza authorities and The Associated Press reported Israeli airstrikes in the area at the time.
Many of the tens of thousands of bombs dropped by Israel since Oct. 7 were supplied by the United States, including 2,000-pound “bunker busters” that have killed hundreds in densely populated areas.
Human rights groups say those weapons could implicate U.S. officials in war crimes. Israel says it respects the laws of war and takes precautions to limit civilian casualties in its war against Hamas. U.S. President Joe Biden, who once warned Israel that it was losing support for its “indiscriminate bombing,” says he is urging Israeli forces to minimize those casualties.
Veteran doctors say the extent of pediatric burns in Gaza is distressing, especially when the territory’s collapsed health system can barely treat them. Only basic painkillers were available to treat Mohamed and Batool, their mother said at a hospital in Khan Younis. Gauze, ointment and clean water were in short supply.
She could barely watch, she said, as her children wept when doctors tried to clean their wounds.
Weeks later, the family managed to leave Gaza for emergency surgery in Cairo — and Wednesday, they were evacuated to the United Arab Emirates with other wounded children from Gaza for further treatment.