Gaza’s Child Amputees Struggle with Recovery, Especially after Israel’s Cutoff of Aid

 A doctor assists 13-year-old Palestinian Yamen Asfour as he learns to walk on a prosthetic leg at the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City on Tuesday, Feb. 18. 2025. (AP)
A doctor assists 13-year-old Palestinian Yamen Asfour as he learns to walk on a prosthetic leg at the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City on Tuesday, Feb. 18. 2025. (AP)
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Gaza’s Child Amputees Struggle with Recovery, Especially after Israel’s Cutoff of Aid

 A doctor assists 13-year-old Palestinian Yamen Asfour as he learns to walk on a prosthetic leg at the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City on Tuesday, Feb. 18. 2025. (AP)
A doctor assists 13-year-old Palestinian Yamen Asfour as he learns to walk on a prosthetic leg at the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City on Tuesday, Feb. 18. 2025. (AP)

Five-year-old Sila Abu Aqlan curled her lip in concentration as she practiced walking for the first time on a prosthetic leg at a clinic in Gaza City. The foot of the new leg had a little pink sneaker with a lacy frill, matching her pink hoodie.

It has been nearly 15 months since the little girl's leg was amputated after it was left severely burned from an Israeli airstrike. Finally, she is being fit for a prosthetic.

One of the most shocking sights in Gaza’s war has been the thousands of children with amputated limbs from Israel’s bombardment. The UN’s humanitarian aid organization OCHA called it the “largest cohort of child amputees in modern history.”

Throughout the 17-month war, supplies and services for children and adults with amputations have fallen far short of demand. Gaza’s ceasefire that began in mid-January offered a window for aid agencies to bring in an increased number of prosthetic limbs, wheelchairs, crutches and other devices.

Still, it only covered about 20% of the total need, said Loay Abu Saif, head of a disability program run by the aid group Medical Aid for Palestine, or MAP.

The window slammed shut when Israel barred entry of all medical supplies as well as food, fuel and other aid on March 2. Israel's resumption of its military campaign last week, killing hundreds of Palestinians, has only added to the ranks of amputees.

Children struggle with multiple traumas

With help limited, children wrestle with the psychological pain of losing a limb along with other traumas.

Sila's mother, father and sisters were all killed in an airstrike on her home in December 2023. Sila suffered severe burns to her right leg. A month of treatment had little effect, and Sila would scream in excruciating pain, her aunt Yasmine al-Ghofary said. Doctors amputated her leg above the knee.

“I try as much as I can to make her happy. But the truth is, there’s only so much she can be happy. Pain is pain, and amputation is amputation,” al-Ghofary said.

Sila sees other girls playing and tries to keep up with them using her walker but falls down. “She says, ’Why am I like this? Why am I not like them?” said al-Ghofary.

In October 2023, 11-year-old Reem lost her hand when an airstrike hit nearby as her family fled their home in Gaza City.

Reem can no longer dress on her own, brush her hair or tie her shoes. She gets angry and hits her siblings if she can’t find someone to help her, her mother said. Other times, she isolates herself and just watches other children playing.

“Once Reem told her dad that she wished to die,” said her mother, who goes by the traditional name, Umm Reem. “In another instance, we were talking about meat, and she said, ‘Slaughter me like a sheep,’ and she was laughing.”

Thousands need help

Some 3,000 to 4,000 children in Gaza had suffered amputations as of November 2024, according to Jamal al-Rozzi and Hussein ِAbu Mansour, two prominent experts with rehabilitation programs in the territory who spoke with The Associated Press.

Up to 17,500 adults and children suffered severe limb injuries, leaving them in need of rehabilitation and assistance, the World Health Organization estimated in September.

Throughout the war, hospitals lacked medicines that could have averted amputations. Doctors describe cutting off limbs because of infections that should have been easily treated.

In its campaign in Gaza, Israel has struck homes and shelters with families inside almost daily.

Gaza's Health Ministry on Monday put out a list of the names of more than 15,000 children, 17 and younger, killed by Israel’s offensive. The list included nearly 5,000 children younger than 6, including 876 infants who had not reached a year in age.

Israel's offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians of all ages and wounded more than 113,000, according to the ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. Nearly 90% of the population of some 2.3 million have been displaced, and vast areas of Gaza have been destroyed.

Israel launched the campaign vowing to destroy Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which gunmen killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 others. Israel says it is targeting Hamas and blames the group for civilian deaths because it operates in residential areas.

Conditions in camps make it even harder for children

Last May, 13-year-old Moath Abdelaal's leg was amputated above the knee after an Israeli airstrike in the southern city of Rafah.

The family had to flee to a tent camp outside the neighboring city of Khan Younis. During the ceasefire, they moved back to their hometown Jabaliya in northern Gaza, but their home had been destroyed, so they live in a tent by the ruins, said his father, Hussein Abdelaal.

Moath’s psychological state is worsening, his father said. Moving with crutches around the rubble is difficult. Doctors had to amputate more from his leg, almost up to his hip, because of complications. The boy learned that a number of his friends in the neighborhood had been killed, Abdelaal said.

“He has been having a hard time coping with his new situation. He’s not sleeping well next to his siblings. It’s difficult to see our son like that,” said Abdelaal.

Aid agencies provide some services

Sila is being treated at the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City, a program launched by the International Committee of the Red Cross that has provided physical therapy, wheelchairs and prosthetics to hundreds of Palestinians suffering from amputations or paralysis.

But supplies are limited. Wheelchairs are urgently needed, with 50 to 60 people a day asking for them in northern Gaza alone, said Mahmoud Shalabi with MAP.

Al-Rozzi, executive director of the National Rehabilitation Society in the Gaza Strip, said Israel blocks materials to manufacture prosthetics from entering Gaza on grounds they could have dual or military uses.

COGAT, the Israeli military body overseeing aid, said there have never been limitations on medical supplies to Gaza, including wheelchairs, prosthetics and crutches.

Some hope for treatment abroad

Some child amputees have been evacuated out of Gaza for treatment. But the pace of medical evacuations has remained slow, at a few dozen a day, and was reduced after Israel's strikes last week. As many as 13,000 patients of all kinds are waiting their chance to get out.

Asmaa al-Nashash wants nothing more than for her 11-year-old son Abdulrahman to go abroad for a prosthetic leg.

The boy was selling items from a stand at a UN school-turned-shelter in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp when an airstrike hit, she said. Shrapnel tore through his leg, and doctors couldn’t save it.

Since then, he often sits alone playing games on her phone because he can’t play football with other children, she said. Other kids bully him, calling him the “one-legged boy.”

“My heart gets torn into pieces when I see him like this and I can do nothing for him,” she said.



Netanyahu’s Governing Coalition Is Fracturing. Here’s What It Means for Israel and Gaza

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walks in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, on the day of a vote over a possible expulsion of Ayman Odeh from parliament, in Jerusalem, July 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walks in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, on the day of a vote over a possible expulsion of Ayman Odeh from parliament, in Jerusalem, July 14, 2025. (Reuters)
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Netanyahu’s Governing Coalition Is Fracturing. Here’s What It Means for Israel and Gaza

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walks in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, on the day of a vote over a possible expulsion of Ayman Odeh from parliament, in Jerusalem, July 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walks in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, on the day of a vote over a possible expulsion of Ayman Odeh from parliament, in Jerusalem, July 14, 2025. (Reuters)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government suffered a serious blow on Tuesday when an ultra-Orthodox party announced it was bolting the coalition.

While this doesn’t immediately threaten Netanyahu’s rule, it could set in motion his government’s demise, although that could still be months away. It also could complicate efforts to halt the war in Gaza.

United Torah Judaism's two factions said they were leaving the government because of disagreements over a proposed law that would end broad exemptions for religious students from enlistment into the military.

Military service is compulsory for most Jewish Israelis, and the issue of exemptions has long divided the country. Those rifts have only widened since the start of the war in Gaza as demand for military manpower has grown and hundreds of soldiers have been killed.

The threat to the government “looks more serious than ever,” said Shuki Friedman, vice president of the Jewish People Policy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank.

Netanyahu is on trial for alleged corruption, and critics say he wants to hang on to power so that he can use his office as a bully pulpit to rally supporters and lash out against prosecutors and judges. That makes him all the more vulnerable to the whims of his coalition allies.

Here is a look at Netanyahu's political predicament and some potential scenarios:

The ultra-Orthodox are key partners

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest serving leader, has long relied on the ultra-Orthodox parties to prop up his governments.

Without UTJ, his coalition holds just 61 out of parliament’s 120 seats. That means Netanyahu will be more susceptible to pressure from other elements within his government, especially far-right parties who strongly oppose ending the war in Gaza.

The political shake up isn't likely to completely derail ceasefire talks, but it could complicate how flexible Netanyahu can be in his concessions to Hamas.

A second ultra-Orthodox party is also considering bolting the government over the draft issue. That would give Netanyahu a minority in parliament and make governing almost impossible.

The ultra-Orthodox military exemptions have divided Israel

A decades-old arrangement by Israel’s first prime minister granted hundreds of ultra-Orthodox men exemptions from compulsory Israeli service. Over the years, those exemptions ballooned into the thousands and created deep divisions in Israel.

The ultra-Orthodox say their men are serving the country by studying sacred Jewish texts and preserving centuries’ old tradition. They fear that mandatory enlistment will dilute adherents’ connection to the faith.

But most Jewish Israelis see the exemption as unfair, as well as the generous government stipends granted to many ultra-Orthodox men who study instead of work throughout adulthood. That bitterness has only worsened during nearly two years of war.

The politically powerful ultra-Orthodox parties have long had outsize influence in Israel’s fragmented political system and used that status to extract major concessions for their constituents.

But a court last year ruled Netanyahu’s government must enlist the ultra-Orthodox so long as there is no new law codifying the exemptions.

Netanyahu’s coalition has been trying to find a path forward on a new law. But his base is largely opposed to granting sweeping draft exemptions and a key lawmaker has stood in the way of giving the ultra-Orthodox a law they can get behind, prompting their exit.

The political shake up comes during Gaza ceasefire talks

The resignations don't take effect for 48 hours, so Netanyahu will likely spend the next two days seeking a compromise. But that won't be easy because the Supreme Court has said the old system of exemptions amounts to discrimination against the secular majority.

That does not mean the government will collapse.

Netanyahu's opponents cannot submit a motion to dissolve parliament until the end of the year because of procedural reasons. And with parliament's summer recess beginning later this month, the parties could use that time to find a compromise and return to the government.

Cabinet Minister Miki Zohar, from Netanyahu’s Likud party, said he was hopeful the religious party could be coaxed back to the coalition. “God willing, everything will be fine,” he said. A Likud spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Once the departures become official, Netanyahu will have a razor-thin majority. The far-right parties within it could threaten to leave the coalition, further weakening him, if he gives in to too many of Hamas' demands.

Hamas wants a permanent end to the war as part of any ceasefire deal. Netanyahu's hard-line partners are open to a temporary truce, but say the war cannot end until Hamas is destroyed.

If they or any other party leave the coalition, Netanyahu will have a minority government, and that will make it almost impossible to govern and likely lead to its collapse. But he could still find ways to approve a ceasefire deal, including with support from the political opposition.

Israel may be on the path toward early elections

Netanyahu could seek to shore up his coalition by appeasing the far-right and agreeing for now to just a partial, 60-day ceasefire with Hamas, promising his governing partners that he can still resume the war once it expires.

But Netanyahu is balancing those political constraints with pressure from the Trump administration, which is pressing Israel to wrap up the war.

Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said she expects Netanyahu to work during those 60 days to shift the narrative away from the draft exemptions and the war in Gaza, toward something that could potentially give him an electoral boost – like an expansion of US-led normalization deals between Israel and Arab or Muslim countries.

Once the 60-day ceasefire is up, Netanyahu could bend to US pressure to end the war and bring home the remaining hostages in Gaza — a move most Israelis would support.

Elections are currently scheduled for October 2026. But if Netanyahu feels like he has improved his political standing, he may want to call elections before then.