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Palestinian teen footballer loses leg after being shot by Israel sniper

April 25, 2018 at 12:23 pm

43 Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli soldiers on Gaza’s eastern border with Israel [Photo by Muhammad Muhaisen]

A Palestinian teenager will “never fulfil his dream of becoming a famous football player” after being shot in the leg by an Israeli sniper during protests in the occupied Gaza Strip.

Seventeen-year-old Attallah Fayoumi suffered devastating injuries on 13 April and his leg subsequently had to be amputated, reported Xinhua.

“When I was shot, I didn’t know that after three days my leg would be amputated,” Attallah said.

Xinhua said that the teen “is still admitted” at the orthopaedic department of Gaza’s Shifa Hospital.

The boy’s father, Jamil Fayoumi, told Xinhua that his son’s treatment “was delayed whe he needed an urgent surgery for the wound, as the Israeli side refused to provide him a permission to leave Gaza for [the] West Bank or an Israeli hospital.”

READ: 12 year-old Palestinian shot by Israel army sniper loses leg

According to Sami Abu Sneima, chief of surgery at the European Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip, Attallah is not the only case of a leg amputation during the past four weeks of rallies. “Many people who were shot with live ammunition had their upper or lower limps amputated,” he said.

Abu Sneima said hospital staff try their best to avoid amputation, succeeding in 60 cases after “accurate operations”.

Maryam Abu Matar, from eastern Khan Yunis, for example, was described by Abu Sneima as “one of the most difficult cases because the arteries are small”, adding: “We made a link arterial by compensating a piece of vein from the other leg to pump blood”.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, “since March 30, the Israeli army killed 39 people, including four children, besides 2 bodies still held in Israel”. In addition, 5,000 Palestinians were injured, including 1,650 who were shot in their lower limbs.