3-year-old Gazan child faces life without limbs after deadly Israel strike

Near a makeshift fabric tent that offers little protection from the winter cold, three-year-old Jihad Mahmoud sits on the chilly sand, playing with a friend. Using his hands to move a ball, Jihad struggles with the loss of his legs, amputated following an Israeli air strike on an area designated as a “safe zone” in Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza, Anadolu Agency reports.

Jihad, an energetic child who once loved playing with his family, now faces restricted mobility.

More than four months ago, an air strike claimed both his legs and three fingers on his left hand.

Dragging what remains of his legs and relying on his hands, Jihad moves around while his family clings to hope for prosthetics that could restore some normalcy.

Despite his severe injuries, Jihad retains his joyful spirit, often breaking into laughter when his mother plays with him.

The child is one of over 22,000 Palestinians left with life-altering injuries, according to Sigrid Kaag, the UN coordinator for humanitarian affairs in Gaza, as of September 2024. Among them, roughly 4,000 have suffered amputations due to Israel’s genocidal war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

READ: Israel wants to turn occupied West Bank into rubble like Gaza, says Haaretz

The crisis is particularly dire for children.

“Gaza is home to the largest cohort of child amputees in modern history,” declared Lisa Doughten, an official with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in October 2024.

“Each day, ten children are losing one or both of their legs,” she added, citing data provided by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

UNRWA Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini, called the injuries “a pandemic of disabilities”, exacerbated by a lack of prosthetics and rehabilitation facilities.

Gaza’s only specialised centres – the Hamad Rehabilitation Hospital and the Gaza Prosthetic Centre – were forced out of service after being targeted in Israeli air strikes, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

A mother’s nightmare

Mai Al-Shaer, Jihad’s mother, recalled the night of the Israeli strike on Gaza’s “safe zone”.

An hour after midnight, an explosion shook their tent. Initially thinking it was a gas cylinder blast; the mother was horrified to realise an air strike had struck what Israel claimed was a “civilian safe zone”.

Mai found her two children, Jihad and one-year-old Ahmed, buried in the sand near her head. She pulled them out but did not immediately realise the extent of Jihad’s injuries due to the darkness and thick smoke from the blast.

The same air strike killed two of her brothers and her pregnant sister-in-law and injured both her parents. Mai’s husband suffered a severe injury that led to the amputation of his left foot and required metal implants in both hands.

The Mawasi area, labelled “safe” by Israel, is a sandy stretch along Gaza’s coastline, extending from Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza to Khan Yunis in the south. Largely uninhabited, it has seen repeated strikes that buried makeshift shelters and displaced families deeper into the sand.

 Shock and loss

After ensuring her surviving family members were safe, Mai accompanied the wounded in an ambulance. It was only at the hospital that she learned the extent of Jihad’s injuries.

READ: UNICEF reports ‘mass casualty’ for children in Gaza during first week of 2025

“It was the shock of my life,” Mai told Anadolu, describing her reaction to seeing her son without legs and missing fingers. She added that the injuries have drastically changed Jihad’s life, robbing him of his once-joyful, active nature.

Jihad’s injuries have devastated the Mahmoud family. The three-year-old requires constant care to prevent infections, particularly because contact with the cold and contaminated sand exacerbates skin conditions and irritates his wounds, his mother explained.

With her husband hospitalised for over four months, Mai shoulders the burden of caring for Jihad alone, all while enduring the harsh conditions of displacement.

The displaced families live in a nylon and fabric tent that offers no protection from the winter cold or summer heat. Basic necessities such as food, clean water, clothing and blankets remain scarce.

As winter deepens, the struggles worsen. The tents provide little shelter against freezing temperatures, and the lack of adequate supplies adds to the suffering. Many families, including Mai’s, were forced into these conditions after Israeli air strikes destroyed their homes and pushed them southward.

The Israeli army has continued a genocidal war on the Palestinian enclave that has killed almost 46,000 people, mostly women and children, since 7 October, 2023, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.

In November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

UNRWA: Hospitals in Gaza have become death traps