PERSONAL: 'I cry all day, my heart is broken' - Gazans receiving treatment in UAE long for home

Record ID: 1763608

  • Title: PERSONAL: 'I cry all day, my heart is broken' - Gazans receiving treatment in UAE long for home
  • Date: 31st January 2024
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MOHAMMAD AL JAAFARI'S MOTHER, UMM MOHAMMAD, SAYING: "Last week, ten days had passed without being able to reach my husband, nor my family, nor my children or anyone else. Communications were lost. It was a big problem alone, as I was not able to know what was happening around them and you want to check on them. Time here hardly passes, you don't feel l
  • Embargoed: 14th February 2024 09:55
  • Keywords: Children Conflict Gaza Injured Palestinians
  • Location: ABU DHABI, UAE / RAFAH AND KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA
  • City: ABU DHABI, UAE / RAFAH AND KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA
  • Country: Palestinian Occupied Territory
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Middle East,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA007655831012024RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: contains graphic images
    Despite making it out of Gaza and escaping the sufferings of war, Palestinians who were evacuated to receive treatment in Abu Dhabi long for home after leaving their families behind.
    Mohammad Al Jaafari, 18, lost his arm in an Israeli airstrike on his hometown of Rafah on October 17. He was among the 426 Palestinian children who were brought so far to the UAE, accompanied by 331 members of their families to receive medical care.
    The UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed pledged to treat 1,000 at UAE hospitals.
    “After the injury, Mohammad is ripped apart from the inside, whether it was his liver, colon, stomach, pancreas, or intestines. Mohammad after the injury is another Mohammad. The other Mohammad was buried,” said Jaafari, lying on his hospital bed.
    Jaafari’s mother, Umm Mohammad, has not left his side. However, she says she never stops worrying about her four children and husband, left in Rafah.
    "I cry all day, my heart is broken for them. I pray for God to reunite us,” cried Umm Mohammed, adding, “last week, ten days had passed without being able to reach my husband, nor my family, nor my children or anyone else. Communications were lost.”
    In another ward at the Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, 5-year-old Gazan, Mohammed Saleem, who born with a congenital respiratory disorder, is being treated after his situation worsened with the start of the war.
    “True he didn't used to speak, but he used to make noises, his voice was always loud,“ said his eight-months pregnant mother, Abeer Abdelshaf Al-Alami.
    “He has changed, he doesn't smile anymore, he doesn't eat or play as before,” she added.
    The 30-year-old mother resident of Khan Younis said she doesn’t know of her husband’s fate, after losing contact with him since their arrival to Abu Dhabi on January 5.
    "At moments, I forget that I am pregnant,’ Alami said, adding, “I don't know what is the gender of my baby until now.”
    At least 26,900 Palestinians have been killed and 65,949 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7, the health ministry in Gaza said in a statement on Wednesday (January 31).
    (Production: Abir Al Ahmar)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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