'I want my 脚s 支援する': the child amputees of Gaza's war
Thirteen-year-old amputee Layan al-Baz receives 治療 at the Nasser hospital in 旅宿泊所 Yunis
Layan al-Baz cries in agony when the 影響 fades of the painkillers she receives after her 脚s were amputated -- the result of a strike on Gaza as イスラエル fights Hamas.
"I don't want a 誤った 脚," the 13-year-old Palestinian tells AFP in 旅宿泊所 Yunis's Nasser hospital, in the southern Gaza （土地などの）細長い一片, where getting 人工的な 四肢s was nearly impossible anyway.
The 貧窮化した Palestinian 領土, under a 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうing Israeli-led 封鎖 for years and 包囲するd since war 爆発するd on October 7, 苦しむs 厳しい 不足s of food, water and 燃料, and 医療の 供給（する）s are 不十分な.
"I want them to put my 脚s 支援する, they can do it," Baz says in desperation from her bed at Nasser's paediatric 区.
Every time she opens her 注目する，もくろむs as the painkillers wear off, she sees her 包帯d stumps.
Her mother, Lamia al-Baz, 47, says Layan was 負傷させるd last week in a strike on Al-Qarara distr ict of 旅宿泊所 Yunis, part of イスラエル's unrelenting 軍の （選挙などの）運動をする in 返答 to 血まみれの Hamas attacks on October 7 that Israeli 公式の／役人s say killed more than 1,400 people, most of them 非軍事のs.
によれば the Hamas-run health 省, nearly 9,500 people have been killed in Gaza since the war 爆発するd, 含むing at least 3,900 children.
Four of them were Baz's 親族s, killed in the strike that cost the 13-year-old's 脚s, her mother says.
Lamia says two of her daughters, Ikhlas and Khitam, and two grandchildren 含むing a newborn baby were killed when the Israeli strike 攻撃する，衝突する Ikhlas's home. The family were there to support Ikhlas who had just given birth.
"Their 団体／死体s were in shreds," says Lamia, who had to identify her daughters' 団体／死体s at a morgue. "I identified Khitam by her earrings and Ikhlas by her toes."
Layan, her 直面する and 武器 dotted with 傷害s, asks: "How will I return to school when my friends walk and I can't?"
Lamia tries to 安心させる her: "I will be by your 味方する. It will all be 罰金. You still have a 未来 ahead of you."
- 'I'm still alive' -
At the hospital's 燃やすs 部隊, 14-year-old Lama al-Agha and her sister Sara, 15, 嘘（をつく） in 隣接する beds.
They are 扱う／治療するd after an October 12 strike that killed Sara's twin Sama and brother Yahya, 12, says their mother, sitting between the two hospital beds and struggling to 持つ／拘留する 支援する 涙／ほころびs.
A young boy in a 車椅子 moves around the Jabaliya 難民 （軍の）野営地，陣営 in Gaza
Stitches and 燃やす scars are 明白な on Lama's half-shaved 長，率いる and her forehead.
"When they transferred me here, I asked the nurses to help me sit up and I discovered that my 脚 was amputated," the 14-year-old 解任するs.
"I've been through a lot of 苦痛 but I thank God that I'm still alive."
Lama is 決定するd not to let her 傷害 decide her 未来.
"I'll get an 人工的な 脚 and continue my 熟考する／考慮するs, so I can 達成する my dream of becoming a doctor. I will be strong for me and for my family," she says.
Hospital director Nahed Abu Taaema explains that 予定 to the 大規模な number of 死傷者s and dwindling 資源s, medics are often left with no choice but to amputate 四肢s to 妨げる life-脅すing 複雑化s.
"We have to choose between saving a 患者's life or putting it at 危険 while trying to save their 負傷させるd 脚," says Abu Taaema.
- Dashed football dream -
冒険的な a green football jersey and matching shorts, Ahmad Abu Shahmah, 14, uses crutches to walk around the 廃虚s of his family's home in 旅宿泊所 Yunis.
Lama al-Agha, 14, is another amputee at the Nasser hospital in 旅宿泊所 Yunis where her sister Sarah, 15, is 扱う／治療するd in an 隣接する bed
Now surrounded by several of his cousins, Abu Shahmah is at the 中庭 where he used to play football.
But the building was destroyed in a strike that killed six of his cousins and an aunt.
"When I woke up (after 外科) I asked my brother, 'where is my 脚?'" he 解任するs.
"He lied to me and said it was 権利 there, and that I couldn't feel it because of the anaesthetics."
The に引き続いて day, "my cousin told me the truth", says Abu Shahmah.
"I cried a lot. The first thing I thought about was that I will no longer be able to walk or play football like I would every day. I 調印するd up to an 学院 one week before the war."
Abu Shahmah supports FC Barcelona, while his cousins are die-hard fans of Real Madrid.
One of them, Farid Abu Shahmah, says that if he "could turn 支援する time and return Ahmad his 脚, I'd be ready to give up Real and become a Barcelona fan like him."
