Layan Al Nasr, 14, thought she would by no means stroll once more after each of her legs have been amputated following an Israeli bombing in Gaza one 12 months in the past.
Now, she stands proudly on synthetic limbs fitted within the United Arab Emirates. However worry for her household, nonetheless residing beneath the assaults, gnaws away.
“Once I was instructed about prosthetics once I arrived, I did not even know they existed,” she jokes, taking a couple of steps supported by crutches.
She is ready to smile as she describes her operations, rehabilitation and her newfound hope. However emotion finally catches up along with her.
“What scares me at present is shedding my brothers, my sisters and my father,” she confides, bursting into tears.
Nasr is one in every of greater than 2,000 wounded or significantly sick Palestinians flown with their closest relations to the oil-rich UAE throughout the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Plucked from shattered Gaza, a lot of it in ruins, they’re fortunate to flee a battle that has left greater than 45,000 individuals useless within the Palestinian territory.
The conflict was triggered by militant group Hamas’s October 7, 2023 assault that resulted in 1,208 deaths on the Israeli aspect, principally civilians, in keeping with an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Nevertheless, the survivors dropped at the UAE are haunted by their reminiscences of conflict and their terror of shedding family members, regardless of their new existence in calm, quiet Abu Dhabi.
“I do not care what occurs to me, the necessary factor is that nothing occurs to them,” insists Nasr.
– Psychological affect –
The complicated housing them within the UAE capital has a college, mosque, grocery retailer and a hairdresser, in addition to a care centre providing physiotherapy, speech remedy and counselling.
“Because of the prosthetics and the care supplied, sufferers have regained their autonomy,” says physiotherapist Mustafa Ahmed Naji Awad.
However the hardest factor to deal with is the psychological affect, he admits.
Faten Abu Khoussa, who got here along with her 10-year-old daughter Qamar, can testify to this.
The little woman was caught in an air raid in Gaza when she went out to purchase a packet of crisps, shedding a leg from her accidents.
Qamar’s spirits have regularly improved over time, however “it stays very troublesome for her. She cherished nothing greater than enjoying on her scooter”, says her mom.
“She feels alone with out her brothers and sisters” who’ve fled to Egypt, Abu Khoussa provides.
The only mom, now separated from the opposite kids she has been elevating since her husband’s loss of life, is desperately attempting to reunite her household within the UAE.
Till then she feels her life is “suspended”, leaving her unable to plan for the longer term.
The Emirati authorities say the bothered Palestinians and their relations can be requested to return house when situations enable.
Ahmad Mazen, 15, who got here together with his mom to have a lower-leg prosthesis fitted, was trying ahead to being reunited together with his father and brother.
However shortly after his arrival, he realized that they’d been killed in a bombing raid.
His solely comfort is soccer, his ardour, and the “indescribable feeling” of lastly having the ability to kick a ball once more, he says.
