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“Eat? Eat what?” | A story from Gaza

Temi:

Gaza. A man of around 25 years old arrives at the clinic. He is very thin, walking with two crutches. A scarf covers his right leg and foot, hiding the surgical rods that have been placed to stabilise the most complex fractures.

He has another wound on his left leg, a long surgical scar on his abdomen and an ostomy pouch. There are scars on his face, and his left hand is missing a finger.

He weighs just 40 kilos. When we tell him that eating is important for recovery, he laughs: “Eat? Eat what? At the market there is no meat, and an egg and a kilo of flour cost almost $15…”

He used to live in Rafah, where he cultivated a small piece of land with his family. Following military operations, he was displaced to Deir Al Balah.

One day, his father asked him and his brothers to return to their land for the olive harvest. On their way, they were hit by a grenade launched by a drone.

One of his cousins has died. One of his brothers has had a leg amputation. Another brother is still in the hospital, where they are trying to save his right hand.

He will have to undergo other surgeries to recover his intestinal function and the use of his leg. He is one of more than 5,000 patients we have seen so far in the field clinic we support in al-Mawasi.

In the coastal “humanitarian zone” of the Gaza Strip, two million people are crowded together, exhausted in body and mind, forced to live with nothing.