Hospital in Jordan Offers Injured Gazans Hope for Recovery 

Palestinian student Eyad Kalab, 17, who was injured in his leg from a bullet on March 5, 2024 and left Gaza with his mother leaving five sisters and his father behind, undergoes physiotherapy with the help of physiotherapist Zaid Alqasi, 34, at the Reconstructive Surgery Hospital of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Amman, Jordan, January 7, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinian student Eyad Kalab, 17, who was injured in his leg from a bullet on March 5, 2024 and left Gaza with his mother leaving five sisters and his father behind, undergoes physiotherapy with the help of physiotherapist Zaid Alqasi, 34, at the Reconstructive Surgery Hospital of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Amman, Jordan, January 7, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
20

Hospital in Jordan Offers Injured Gazans Hope for Recovery 

Palestinian student Eyad Kalab, 17, who was injured in his leg from a bullet on March 5, 2024 and left Gaza with his mother leaving five sisters and his father behind, undergoes physiotherapy with the help of physiotherapist Zaid Alqasi, 34, at the Reconstructive Surgery Hospital of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Amman, Jordan, January 7, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinian student Eyad Kalab, 17, who was injured in his leg from a bullet on March 5, 2024 and left Gaza with his mother leaving five sisters and his father behind, undergoes physiotherapy with the help of physiotherapist Zaid Alqasi, 34, at the Reconstructive Surgery Hospital of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Amman, Jordan, January 7, 2025. (Reuters)

Karam Nawjaa, 17, was so badly injured when an Israeli strike hit his home in Gaza nearly a year ago that his own cousin, pulling him from the rubble, did not recognize him.

After rushing Karam to hospital he returned to continue searching for his cousin all night in the rubble.

In that strike on Feb. 14, 2024, Karam lost his mother, a sister and two brothers. As well as receiving serious burns to his face and body, he lost the ability to use his arms and hands.

Now, the burns are largely healed and he is slowly regaining the use of his limbs after months of treatment at a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in the Jordanian capital Amman which operates a program of reconstructive surgery.

"I only remember that on that day, February 14, there was a knock on our door... I opened it, my brother came in, and after that... (I remember) nothing," he said.

"Before the war I was studying, and thank God, I was an outstanding student," Karam said, adding that his dream had been to become a dentist. Now he does not think about the future.

"What happened, happened... you feel that all your ambitions have been shattered, that what happened to you has destroyed you."

Karam is one of many patients from Gaza being treated at Amman's Specialized Hospital for Reconstructive Surgery, Al-Mowasah Hospital. He shares a room there with his younger sister and their father.

"All these patients are war victims... with complex injuries, complex burns... They need very long rehabilitation services, both surgical but also physical and mental," said Moeen Mahmood Shaief, head of the MSF mission in Jordan.

"The stories around those patients are heartbreaking, a lot of them have lost their families" and require huge support to be reintegrated into normal life, he added.

Israel's 15-month offensive in Gaza has killed almost 47,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas-run Health Ministry figures, and left the coastal enclave a wasteland of rubble that will take years to rebuild. Most of the population was displaced.

The campaign was launched after Hamas fighters attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Displaced Palestinians have been returning to their mostly destroyed homes this week after a ceasefire came into effect on Jan. 19.



Anxiety Rises in DR Congo Capital as M23 Rebels Advance in East 

Residents venture out onto the streets following clashes at Kadutu Market in Bukavu on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
Residents venture out onto the streets following clashes at Kadutu Market in Bukavu on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
TT
20

Anxiety Rises in DR Congo Capital as M23 Rebels Advance in East 

Residents venture out onto the streets following clashes at Kadutu Market in Bukavu on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
Residents venture out onto the streets following clashes at Kadutu Market in Bukavu on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

As Rwanda-backed rebels strolled through the streets of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's second-largest city, President Felix Tshisekedi's office claimed it was actually still controlled by his army and "valiant" allied forces.

It was the latest jarring move from the 61-year-old leader that has fueled a sense of worry and panic 1,600 km (1,000 miles) away in the capital Kinshasa, where some residents are looking to move their families abroad amid open talk of a coup.

"There was never any question of fighting in Bukavu. It was clear to all the people on the ground that the Rwandans and their auxiliaries were going to make their entry," said one army general who expressed bafflement at a statement issued by the president's office on Sunday.

Tshisekedi, he added, "doesn't have the right sources."

Anxiety is visible on the streets of Kinshasa as the army puts up limited resistance against the M23 group's advance and residents question whether Tshisekedi grasps the risk it poses.

Embassies have begun using armored vehicles for trips to the airport and sending some staff across the Congo River to Brazzaville, capital of Republic of Congo.

Three Kinshasa-based government officials told Reuters they were making arrangements to get their families out of the country.

Banker Matondo Arnold said he had already sent his family to Brazzaville after the rebels seized Goma, eastern Congo's biggest city, in late January. "We never imagined Goma could fall," he said.

As talk about a possible coup spread, Justice Minister Constant Mutamba said on X that Congolese "will not accept any coup that involves the Rwandan army to destabilize the country's institutions."

But even a member of Tshisekedi's Sacred Union coalition said the anxiety was unmistakable.

"Oh yes, it's panic. Some people are desperate and they are courting embassies" in search of an exit.

SUMMIT SNUB

This M23 advance is the gravest escalation in more than a decade of the long-running conflict in eastern Congo, rooted in the spillover of Rwanda's 1994 genocide into Congo and the struggle for control of Congo's vast minerals resources.

Rwanda rejects allegations from Congo, the United Nations and Western powers that it supports M23 with arms and troops. It says it is defending itself against the threat from a Hutu militia, which it says is fighting with the Congolese military.

As the hunt for a diplomatic resolution stalls, with Tshisekedi refusing to negotiate with the rebels, his camp faults the international community for failing to stand up to Rwanda by imposing sanctions.

"It's not a bad thing to refuse dialogue with an armed group like M23. The M23 is Rwanda," said a lawmaker close to the president. "Why doesn't the West do anything?"

Tshisekedi has skipped two African-organized meetings this month addressing the fighting - a joint summit in Dar es Salaam of Southern and Eastern African leaders and the annual African Union summit in Addis Ababa.

Instead, he travelled to the Munich Security Conference where he accused his predecessor Joseph Kabila of sponsoring M23's military campaign, which Kabila's camp denied.

The decision by Tshisekedi, who spent much of his life in Brussels, to fly to Europe drew derision from the Congolese political establishment.

"The fact that an African president snubs the African Union summit and prefers instead a security conference in Europe is indicative of who sustains him," said one former senior official.

Some members of Congo's fractious opposition are openly predicting Tshisekedi will not last.

"His lack of legitimacy is now proven, making him less and less listened to and more and more rejected by the population every day," said Olivier Kamitatu, a Kabila-era minister and spokesperson for opposition politician Moise Katumbi.

"Tshisekedi did not understand the issues of the country and the region. He did not have enough intellectual heft to lead Congo," said Martin Fayulu, who came in second in the 2018 election that brought Tshisekedi to power.

But it is unclear who could pose the most legitimate challenge to Tshisekedi, said Congolese analyst Bob Kabamba of the University of Liege in Belgium.

"With the capture of Goma and Bukavu, no one is sure of Tshisekedi's ability to control the security and political situation," he said.