‘It was her leg or her life’: Woman from viral video on how she escaped Gaza after brutal amputation
It was a moment of horror from Gaza which went viral – a video of an amputation on a dining table. No anaesthetic. No bandages. Just a bucket, some soap and a kitchen knife.
It was 19 December 2023, and the war in Gaza was in its third month. Israel’s bombardment of the northern part of the narrow strip of land was at its most intense.
Inside the Bseiso family home, an apartment on the ground floor of a six-storey block not far from Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, 17-year-old Ahed Bseiso was laid across the kitchen table.
The table, where Ahed’s mother had been making bread moments before, was now a scene of unimaginable horror, as Ahed’s uncle Hani, who is a doctor, carried out an emergency operation.
Ahed’s left leg was badly wounded, and her right lower leg was in shreds.
Desperate, she had pleaded with her uncle not to amputate it but Hani knew he had no choice.
It was her leg or her life.
Minutes earlier, Ahed had been on the top floor of their building, trying to call her father who lives in Belgium. The high floors were best for phone signal and every day, she and her older sister, Mona, would head up there to tell him they were still alive.
Ahed (left) had no anaesthetic as her uncle (right) amputated her leg
On this particular morning, as she struggled to get a connection, she noticed some large Israeli tanks outside on the street. Then a huge explosion split the air.
“I heard a bang and a wall came tumbling on top of me,” Ahed told Sky News. “There was dust all over the place and I couldn’t understand where I was.”
Trapped in the rubble, Ahed was disorientated. She called for Mona. Her mother and her cousins rushed to help. They managed to free her from the rubble, revealing the young Gazan – alive but with one leg broken and the other in pieces.
“I asked my cousin, ‘Is my leg gone?’ and he said, ‘No, don’t look’.”
Her cousins carried Ahed down the stairs to their apartment. There was gunfire outside.
“There was no surgical equipment,” Ahed recalled. “My uncle got soap and the scrubber from the kitchen and started to clean my leg… He started to cry. Then he cut my leg off.
“I remained conscious the entire time without anaesthesia. My only solace was my cousin, who stood next to me, reciting the Koran.”
The spot where Ahed was injured
Her uncle Hani saved her life. He had also felt compelled to film the procedure; to show the world what had come of life, and death, for the people of Gaza.
“What is this injustice that has befallen us?” he screamed straight at the camera as he cleaned Ahed’s wound.
“We have been surrounded for 15 days. I had to amputate my niece’s leg without anaesthesia. Where is the mercy? Where is humanity? What have we done to deserve this?”
The decision to upload the video to social media would in time precipitate a journey for Ahed out of Gaza, to Egypt and eventually to America.
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Six thousand miles away in the small American town of Aiken, South Carolina, a woman called Wafa Abed was online. Like so many exiled Palestinians around the world, she was deeply affected by the images emerging from her homeland.
As she scrolled, she came across the video of Hani Bseiso, his niece and the amputation. The Bseisos were strangers to her but the footage had an immediate impact.
“You have to get this girl out,” Wafa told her son Tareq. “You have to do this.”
Tareq Hailat, 27, a medical student, had recently taken on a new part-time role. As an Arab-American, he was consumed by the tragedy of the Israel-Gaza conflict, and had started working for a charity.
The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) is an American charity with a long history of helping the region’s vulnerable children. Since this latest conflict began it has tried, initially with little success, to evacuate injured children.
Tareq Hailat, Head of the Treatment Abroad Program, Palestine Children’s Relief Fund
Now, desperate to help Ahed and others who he had seen online, Tareq began to put together a global network of strangers. Despite the huge obstacles in his path, he pulled every lever and followed every lead.
PCRF’s long-established status in Gaza and the West Bank – combined with this young medical student’s drive and determination – began to work wonders.
“I kept working on ensuring that we can pull Ahed out,” Tareq said over a Palestinian breakfast at his parents’ South Carolina home.
“I started reaching out to my professors and they connected me with different physicians here in the US. Once that was established, then I started connecting with people inside Gaza and in Egypt.”
It took over a month, and 17 failed attempts, to get Ahed out of Gaza.
Israel repeatedly denied her permission to leave. Her ambulance convoy was attacked and the vehicle next to hers was destroyed.
In Egypt, in preparation, there were passports to apply for, and visas to be issued.
Ahed’s journey out of Gaza was fraught with danger
For Tareq and his new team, it felt like a logistical and bureaucratic impossibility. He was on the phone daily, sometimes hourly, for two weeks to the Red Crescent.
“They would ask the Israelis for permission to go up to the north of Gaza to get her. We would never get the green light. Finally, we did.”
Ahed Bseiso arrived in Greenville, South Carolina, on 17 February 2024, having just turned 18.
She had never left Gaza before and was now in a new world with her sister Mona beside her. The rest of the Bseiso family had to remain behind, trapped in Gaza.
Greenville was where they ended up because Tareq studies medicine there and he knew people willing to treat her injuries.
Ahed’s sister Mona travelled with her to America
Ahed was sitting in her wheelchair, with her sister, a faint smile on her face, when I first met her.
Like Tareq’s mother and many millions of others, I had seen the viral video months earlier. I never imagined I would meet the young woman at the heart of it.
“Marhaba,” I said – Arabic for hello. She replied in English. “Hello.”
I wasn’t quite sure where to begin. But she chose to start on that fateful day explaining it all with bravery and poise.
I asked her the question I’d wondered about ever since I’d first seen the video. Why wasn’t she screaming? How on earth did she cope?
”The strength came from within me,” she replied, “…because I never want to give my occupier the opportunity that they were able to kill us and silence us.”
Last week was the latest stage of Ahed’s journey, from South Carolina to Colorado. The strangers compelled to help her through every step were taking her to see a doctor in Denver.
Ahed was grateful for the kindness she received in America
Dr Omar Mubarak is a leading American vascular surgeon and another remarkable character who makes things happen. He’d been contacted by the PCRF and immediately wanted to help.
Beyond the welcome party he gathered at the arrivals hall at Denver airport, Dr Omar had arranged a new prosthetic leg. For free, for Ahed.
The morning of the fitting began with a smile. Ahed had left her right shoe in Greenville. There wouldn’t be anything to put on the new foot. She giggled and we all laughed.
The fitting itself was private – her moment.
But then, as the clinic door opened, one tentative step. Then lots. Ahed marched down the hospital corridor. “It feels great,” she said.
Dr Omar watched, smiling, but with a tear in his eye. “She took to it like a fish. She made four steps before we could stop her. Awesome day. Awesome. She’s extremely excited.”
Ahed seemed so grateful to those who have helped her, only a handful of whom could be mentioned in this story.
“It is something I will never forget,” she said.
But how did she feel about coming to America – a place where she’s found such kindness but the country which is the biggest supporter of the nation which caused her injuries? It was a tricky question but an important one.
Her answer spoke volumes.
“When you see people happy to see you or trying their best to support you… it is something I will never forget.
“But the first thing I thought was ‘how I could leave Gaza and seek treatment in a country that is possibly – even more than Israel – largely responsible for my condition?'”
Out of a war which has stirred so much and damaged so many, I found a young woman grateful but hugely conflicted too.
Ahed will now head back to South Carolina to continue her recovery. She wants to return home as soon as possible.
“I’m happy for this opportunity, but my heart is still with my family in northern Gaza, which is the most terrible place on earth right now.”
The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) has now extracted about 100 injured children from Gaza since this latest conflict began. Seven of them, including Ahed, have come to the United States.
Most have been sent for treatment in the region – 47 have been moved to Qatar and 15 to the United Arab Emirates. Many are in hospital in Egypt. Lebanon, South Africa and Jordan have all agreed to take patients. Others have gone to Europe. The UK has not accepted any Gazans.
Donald Trump has claimed Russia is “making concessions” in talks to end the Ukraine war – and that Kyiv is “happy” with how talks are progressing.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One as he flew out to his Florida estate for Thanksgiving, Mr Trump said “we’re making progress” on a deal and said he would be willing to meet with both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy once they are close to an agreement.
He also said his previously announced deadline of Thursday, which is Thanksgiving, was no longer in place – and that the White House’s initial 28-point peace plan, which sparked such concern in Kyiv, “was just a map”.
U.S. President Donald Trump looks on aboard Air Force One during travel to Palm Beach, Florida, from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., Nov
Asked if Ukraine had been asked to hand over too much territory, Mr Trump suggested that “over the next couple of months [that] might be gotten by Russia anyway”.
Moscow’s concessions are a promise to stop fighting, “and they don’t take any more land”, he said.
“The deadline for me is when it’s over,” he added. “And I think everybody’s tired of fighting at this moment.”
Read more: A plan with Russian fingerprints all over it
Before boarding the plane, Mr Trump claimed only a few “points of disagreement” remain between the two sides.
Mr Trump’s negotiator Steve Witkoff will be meeting with Mr Putin in Moscow next week, the president said, while American army secretary Daniel Driscoll is due to travel to Kyiv for talks this week.
The chief of Ukraine’s presidential staff, Andriy Yermak, wrote: “Ukraine has never been and will never be an obstacle to peace. We are grateful to the US for all its support.
“The meeting between the presidents will be thoroughly and promptly prepared on our part.”
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‘Ukraine still needs defence support,’ says Zelenskyy
Zelenskyy warns against ‘behind our back’ deal
Yesterday, a virtual “coalition of the willing” meeting that featured Ukraine’s allies took place, which was attended by US secretary of state Marco Rubio.
In a speech, Mr Zelenskyy told attendees: “We firmly believe security decisions about Ukraine must include Ukraine, security decisions about Europe must include Europe.
“Because when something is decided behind the back of a country or its people, there is always a high risk it simply won’t work.”
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What is Russia saying about the latest peace talks?
A joint statement from coalition leaders Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, and Friedrich Merz said they had agreed with Mr Rubio “to accelerate joint work” with the US on the planning of security guarantees for Ukraine.
But a Ukrainian diplomat has warned major sticking points remain in the peace deal being thrashed out – primarily the prospect of territorial concessions.
A warning from the Kremlin
Meanwhile, Moscow has stressed that it will not allow any agreement to stray too far from its own objectives.
Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warned any amended peace plan must reflect the understanding reached between Mr Trump and Mr Putin over the summer.
“If the spirit and letter of Anchorage is erased in terms of the key understandings we have established then, of course, it will be a fundamentally different situation,” he said, referring to the two leaders’ meeting in Alaska.
Read more:
Zelenskyy races to beat Trump’s peace plan deadline
In full: Europe’s 28-point counterproposal
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Standing ovation for Zelenskyy
As negotiations continue, so have Russian attacks, with Kyiv hit by a barrage of missiles and hundreds of drones early yesterday morning.
Seven people were killed with power and heating systems disrupted, as residents sheltered underground.
Meanwhile, three people died and homes were damaged after Ukraine launched an attack on southern Russia.
‘A critical juncture’
French President Emmanuel Macron has said peace efforts are gathering momentum, but “are clearly at a critical juncture”.
And during the annual White House turkey pardon ahead of Thanksgiving, Mr Trump told reporters: “I think we’re getting close to a deal. We’ll find out.
“I thought that would have been an easier one, but I think we’re making progress.”
In this story, there’s no substitute for hard news.
To learn of US envoy Steve Witkoff and his Russian interactions is to understand the handbrake turn towards Moscow.
If there was much surprise and confusion about the origins of a peace proposal that had Russian fingerprints all over it, there is less now.
The Bloomberg report of Witkoff’s recent involvement distills eye-watering detail of his contact with Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin’s senior adviser on foreign policy.
Among the revelations, it tells of the American advising the Russian on dealing with Trump.
In a phone call last month, Witkoff told Ushakov that Zelenskyy was coming to visit the White House, and suggested Putin speak to Trump beforehand.
Witkoff reportedly said: “The president will give me a lot of space and discretion to get to the deal.”
He spoke of Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan and suggested that “maybe we do the same thing with you”.
Read more:
Who actually wrote Trump’s peace plan?
Steve Witkoff: Real estate mogul turned envoy
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What is Russia saying about the latest peace talks?
A good impression of a useful idiot
Subsequently, Witkoff drafted the controversial peace proposal with his Russian counterparts, and the US pressured Ukraine to accept it.
The report paints an unflattering picture of Trump’s envoy doing a good impression of a useful idiot.
There must be serious questions surrounding his engagement with the Russians and serious concerns around consequences that are potentially catastrophic.
Moscow’s threat to Ukraine and to the security infrastructure of Western Europe is strengthened on his handshake.
He’ll press the flesh in Russia once more – Donald Trump is sending Witkoff back to Moscow for further talks aimed at bridging the Ukraine-Russia impasse.
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Trump: I think we are getting very close to Ukraine deal
Scandal isn’t what it used to be
Putin has given the Americans little to no encouragement around their reworked plan and Kyiv will shudder at what Trump’s “Mr Fixit” might fix next.
They will despair of his continued involvement at any level and what it says about Trump’s perspective and where his loyalties lie.
In any other job, Witkoff might have been sacked for being irredeemably compromised.
At any other time, this would have been viewed, universally, as a major scandal.
But under Donald Trump, scandal isn’t what it used to be.
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‘Ukraine still needs defence support,’ says Zelenskyy
The president and his point man continue to consort with Vladimir Putin.
On the evidence of Steve Witkoff’s interaction, the power dynamic leans less Trump than we might have thought.
World
Venezuela: Maduro brandishes sword and vows to defy any US attempt to overthrow his government
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has vowed to defy any US attempt to overthrow his government – telling crowds that “failure is not an option”.
The 63-year-old brandished a sword as he addressed supporters during a march in Caracas, against a backdrop of growing tensions with Donald Trump’s administration.
Dressed in camouflage fatigues, Mr Maduro said: “We must be ready to defend every inch of this blessed land from imperialist threat or aggression, no matter where it comes from.”
Maduro was swamped by supporters. Pic: Reuters
Since September, US military forces have been conducting a series of strikes against vessels suspected of drug trafficking in international waters, killing at least 80 people.
Washington has claimed that several of these boats had departed from Venezuela, with Mr Maduro describing the deployment as an assault on the nation’s sovereignty.
‘Stop this madness’
Yesterday, Cuba also accused the US of seeking a violent overthrow of Mr Maduro’s government – and called its military presence in the region “exaggerated and aggressive”.
The country’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, said ousting Venezuela’s leader would be extremely dangerous and irresponsible, not to mention a violation of international law.
He added: “We appeal to the people of the United States to stop this madness. The US government could cause an incalculable number of deaths and create a scenario of violence and instability in the hemisphere that would be unimaginable.”
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Is US about to go to war with Venezuela?
Reports suggest the US is planning to launch a new phase of Venezuela-related operations in the coming days.
Critics have questioned the legality of America’s campaign and argue it amounts to extrajudicial killings, with a recent poll suggesting just 29% of voters support this policy.
Officials within Maduro’s government have claimed that Washington’s actions are being driven by economic motives.
Venezuelan minister Delcy Rodriguez said: “They want Venezuela’s oil and gas reserves. For nothing, without paying. They want Venezuela’s gold.
“They want Venezuela’s diamonds, iron, bauxite. They want Venezuela’s natural resources.”
Venezuela’s president has remained defiant. Pic: AP
Donald Trump, like his predecessor Joe Biden, does not recognise Mr Maduro as the country’s leader.
He is currently on his third term after being declared the winner of last year’s presidential election, despite evidence that the opposition defeated him by a two-to-one margin.
Mr Maduro and senior officials have been repeatedly accused of human rights violations against real and perceived government opponents.
Earlier this week, the US designated Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles – Cartel of the Suns in English – as a foreign terrorist organisation for importing illegal drugs to the States.
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Venezuelan president dances to speech remix
The Trump administration has claimed that Maduro is part of this group, but Venezuelan officials have described its mere existence as a “ridiculous fabrication”.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One as he travelled to Florida for Thanksgiving, the president suggested he might be planning to talk to Mr Maduro.
“If we can save lives, if we can do things the easy way, that’s fine,” the US president said. “And if we have to do it the hard way, then that’s fine too.”
Read more world news:
Russia ‘making concessions’, Trump says
Four more arrests over Louvre heist
Brazil’s Bolsonaro begins 27-year jail term
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US strikes alleged drug boat
Carlos Diaz Rosillo, a former US deputy assistant secretary of defence during the first Trump administration, does not believe America will go to war with Venezuela.
He told The World With Dominic Waghorn: “What I do see is a strategy of maximum pressure on the regime. I do think if there’s any change, that change has to come from within the military.”
Dr Rosillo said the official position of the US government is not regime change, but Mr Trump would like to see that happen in Venezuela.
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