Mohammad Al-Sayyed, aged 34, lies on a tattered mat inside a makeshift tent among the ruins of his home in Gaza. He carefully lifts his injured right leg, pressing and rubbing it with trembling hands, seeking solace where there is none. The wound is severe, sustained when the dwelling next door was struck in October 2023. Doctors at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital urged him to allow them to amputate; he refused, clinging to hope that he might travel overseas for proper treatment.

For over a year, he shuffles between hospital corridors and displacement camps. Every appeal for travel permits is met with silence or refusal. Each closed border crossing is a gate slammed on his chance at recovery. His desperate longing for medical care beyond Gaza’s collapsing health system remains unfulfilled.

Meanwhile young Nariman Abdullah Al-Essa, four years old, carries scars both physical and emotional. On the night of 26 June 2025, her home near Al-Samer junction was reduced to rubble by an indiscriminate missile. Her mother died instantly. Her brother was wounded. Nariman, severely injured, lost her left leg in two stages of operation, and her right eye has been permanently blinded. She now wears a patch of prostheses: a scarred body, a shattered childhood. Her small voice still insists, “Bring me Mama from Heaven,” even though her grandmother tried to explain that “Mama has gone to God.”

These stories are far from unique. Thousands across Gaza suffer debilitating wounds while awaiting treatment that never comes. The healthcare network is suffocating, damaged hospitals, scarce medical supplies, shortage of specialists. Many are trapped, their condition worsening as time passes without external care.

According to the Health Ministry’s estimates, since the genocide began two years ago, around 169,583 people have been wounded, more than 19,000 of them needing long-term rehabilitation. At least 4,800 amputations have been recorded, nearly one in five involving a child. Over 1,800 cases of paralysis, and 1,200 of vision loss have been documented; children are highly represented among these. More than 17,000 children now require long-term treatment beyond Gaza’s borders, but fewer than one third have even the paperwork in place, still waiting for the permission to leave.

Hospitals are under continuous bombardment; ambulances frequently disabled; medical centres destroyed or rendered inoperative. The result is urgent injuries turning into chronic disability, preventable suffering turning permanent.