More than 14,000 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza, and more than 12,000 injured, in the war waged by the Israeli army. Since he went there to provide treatment at the start of the conflict, surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta has pursued a dream: to allow injured Gazans to rebuild their lives. A first child arrived last week, after a long wait in Egypt, and other evacuations are to follow.
1 min
With our correspondent in Beirut, Laura Stephan
Five-year-old Adam Afana is the first little Gazan to arrive in Lebanon to be treated there. Wounded in the left arm at the start of the war, he risked amputation. Several of his relatives were killed… His uncle Eid, who accompanied him to Beirut, spoke with emotion.
“ Adam’s sister, one of his aunts and his grandmother were killed in the bombing that injured him “, he explains. “ His parents were seriously injured, then his father did not survive. Adam was treated in hospitals with the means at hand… It was I who got him out of Gaza to Egypt. »
Read alsoPalestinian territories: children, first victims of the war in Gaza
Adam’s arrival in Lebanon was made possible by a foundation which will support his treatment. It was established by the surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta, familiar with Gaza and war trauma, who practiced for ten years in Beirut.
“ Beirut has specialists who have experience with war injuries, due to the wars in Lebanon, the Israeli invasions, and then receiving wounded from Iraq and Syria. There is strong expertise in caring for war wounded, unique in the world. “, he emphasizes.
Beirut is also a cultural proximity for traumatized children… After his treatment, Adam, the little survivor, will find his convalescing mother in Egypt.