‘The doctor told me count to three – and he cut my leg’: The generation of Palestinian children with devastating amputations after a year of war
A generation of children and young adults in Gaza are coping with devastating amputations after a year of brutal war.
It’s left a terrible legacy, with thousands – many of them babies – coping with missing limbs.
Warning: This story contains images and descriptions readers may find distressing
Those in Gaza like Jihad have absolutely heart-breaking war wounds. The three-year-old’s left leg has been amputated right up to the hip, his right leg cut below the knee. The doctors couldn’t save three of the fingers on his left hand.
Jihad, who lost both his legs and three fingers
He cries constantly and he’s writhing around in pain when Sky’s Gaza crew sees him. His mother Mai tells our team that he’s completely changed since the bombing – going from an active, talkative toddler to a depressed little boy who can’t accept his crushing lack of mobility.
“He keeps asking me for slippers and he has no feet,” she says despairingly.
The whole family was injured when a bomb landed near their tent in Khan Younis where they’d fled to. But Jihad was by far the worst affected.
She’s desperate to get him the help he so urgently needs but there’s very little aid getting into Gaza, and there has been no evacuations from the war zone, even for the very sick or wounded, for weeks now.
We were given rare access on board a planeload of aid and personnel being flown into the area. But this aid was not going into Gaza. It was instead going to a floating hospital run by the United Arab Emirates and anchored off the coast of Egypt – the nearest secure position it has permission for near Gaza.
The entrance to the floating hospital
The hospital’s patients are all wounded or ill from Gaza. They include children – some who arrived like ten-year-old Yazan, alone without even a guardian, his left leg already cut below the knee. He’s already spent several weeks on board the floating hospital. The doctors and nurses all know him.
Yazan, 10, who arrived at the hospital without a guardian
The hospital’s director, Dr Ahmed Mubarak tells us: “We are his family right now and we try to give him all the support he needs.”
Dr Ahmed Mubarak, director of the floating hospital
Yazan tells the director he’s “good” and that he plays football and games like the other children on board – but his eyes are sunken and he has dark shadows around them. He’s just a little boy, all alone, thrown into and devastated by this man’s war which has changed his life forever.
The ship has been converted into a state-of-the-art medical facility with five decks of equipment including an emergency room, operating theatre and ICU.
Here, the rescued patients are given access to specialist surgeons, medics, nursing staff and equipment and medicines beyond the wildest dreams of those trapped in the Gaza war zone. And most of all, those here are given sanctuary from the bombing, mayhem, blood and chaos of the war a short distance away.
Read more:
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Israel-Hamas war: Timeline of events since 7 October
The UN has estimated about one thousand children like Yazan had amputations in just one month of the war last November. It’s a shuddering thought wondering how many more there must be now.
Children playing at the humanitarian centre
‘I just want to walk properly again’
At the Humanitarian City in Abu Dhabi – as it’s named by the Emiratis who set it up – we see a horrifying number of them. Amidst the children playing on the swings, or boys having a go at the arcade machines provided or those making their way along the corridors, you’ll catch glimpses of them.
There’s a young girl doing her best to get momentum on the swings with only one arm. At the arcade, there are boys in wheelchairs with legs missing or riding the arcade motorbike with only one leg.
In the physio room, a 13-year-old girl called Tuqa is being persuaded to try to walk on her artificial limbs. She has not one but two prosthesis to try to balance on and get the measure of. The double-amputee is struggling.
Tuqa and her prosthetic legs
“I’m scared,” she tells the physio who is trying to coax her into letting go of him. “Try, try, come on, let’s go,” he says.
Tuqa in Gaza
I ask her what her ambition is and she says with heart-rending simplicity: “I just want to walk properly again.” Then she adds: “And go back home.”
A childhood of surgeries
Rakan is one little baby who has made it out. He has his right leg missing but he’s too young to know that he’s seen as one of the “lucky” ones.
Baby Rakan’s parents were denied permission to leave Gaza
He’s not too young to be wary of the doctors who are measuring him up for his new prosthesis though. He’s learned this process can sometimes hurt.
He has a lot more pain to come. His childhood is going to be consumed with multiple surgeries as he’s fitted and re-fitted with artificial limbs as he grows.
Rakan’s grandmother is his guardian on the floating hospital
Rakan too came out of Gaza without his parents who were refused permission to leave. His guardian now is his grandmother. She tells us she doesn’t support Hamas. We’re not naming her for the safety of the family still in Gaza.
“Me, my family, all of us, don’t like Hamas,” she tells us. “If I have a neighbour who says they are [Hamas], I’ll distance myself from them.”
She adds: “I don’t like them and I won’t live in the same area but it’s impossible to know who’s who.”
‘The doctor told me to count to three’
When we hear Fuad’s tale of survival, I begin to think the loss of one of his legs might be the least of his wounds. He tells of a bomb hitting his parents’ bedroom in Gaza, killing them instantly as well as three siblings.
Fuad testing out his prosthetic leg
The sixteen-year-old was showered in rubble and pulled out by his cousin who took him to Al Shifa hospital which was already crowded. “I was laying in the hallway of the hospital,” he tells us, “I could see my leg was half gone.”
The doctor told him he was going to have to amputate it and he had no anaesthetic.
“I told him, wait for my father,” he said. “I didn’t know my father was killed then… and he told me: count to three – and he cut it. He put my leg in a bag next to me.”
Fuad in hospital in Gaza
He shows us pictures of himself in the crowded hospital, sometimes with dressings on his amputated leg, sometimes not. He spent 20 days there until the hospital was stormed for the first time by Israeli troops.
“We had no water, food or electricity,” he says. “And me and the guy next to me had a spoonful of food a day.”
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I ask him if he saw any armed men or Hamas in the hospital as the Israelis designated Al Shifa a command and control centre for the militant group. “The only armed men I saw were Israeli soldiers,” he said angrily. “And if you’re asking me if we were Hamas. We are not. My father was a doctor. We had nothing to do with Hamas.”
Everywhere we look there are tales of survival and horrifying death-defying battles. A year on, the trauma and war is still waging.
:: Alex Crawford reports with camera operator Jake Britton, specialist producer Chris Cunningham and our Sky News teams inside the Gaza Strip
World
US ‘destroying’ international rules-based order by trying to meet Russia ‘halfway’, Ukraine’s UK ambassador warns
The United States is “finally destroying” the international rules-based order by trying to meet Russia “halfway”, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK has warned.
Valerii Zaluzhnyi said Washington’s recent actions in relation to Moscow could lead to the collapse of NATO – with Europe becoming Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s next target.
“The failure to qualify actions of Russia as an aggression is a huge challenge for the entire world and Europe, in particular,” he told a conference at the Chatham House think tank.
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“We see that it is not just the axis of evil and Russia trying to revise the world order, but the US is finally destroying this order.”
Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Pic: Reuters
Mr Zaluzhnyi, who took over as Kyiv’s ambassador to London in 2024 following three years as commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, also warned that the White House had “questioned the unity of the whole Western world” – suggesting NATO could cease to exist as a result.
It comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy scrambles to repair relations with US President Donald Trump following a dramatic row between the two men in the Oval Office last week.
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Mr Trump signalled on Tuesday that tensions could be easing, telling Congress he had received a letter from Mr Zelenskyy saying he was ready to sign a peace deal “at any time”.
Zelenskyy and Trump during their extraordinary Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
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But on the same day, the US president ordered a sudden freeze on shipments of US military aid to Ukraine, and Washington has since paused intelligence sharing with Kyiv and halted cyber operations against Russia.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Mr Zaluzhnyi said the pause in cyber operations and an earlier decision by the US to oppose a UN resolution condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine were “a huge challenge for the entire world”.
He added that talks between the US and Russia – “headed by a war criminal” – showed the White House “makes steps towards the Kremlin, trying to meet them halfway”, warning Moscow’s next target “could be Europe”.
World
Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh being forced to fight for same military accused of genocide against their people
Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh is a sprawling mass of humanity.
It’s a sea of makeshift bamboo shelters, home to more than one million Rohingya refugees – a mainly Muslim minority from Rakhine state in Myanmar.
Some 700,000 fled their homeland back in 2017 – after the Myanmar military massacred thousands.
The army was accused of genocide by the United Nations.
The Rohingya refugees didn’t escape danger though.
Right now, violence is at its worst levels in the camps since 2017 and Rohingya people face a particularly cruel new threat – they’re being forced back to fight for the same Myanmar military accused of trying to wipe out their people.
A child at the refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar
Militant groups are recruiting Rohingya men in the camps, some at gunpoint, and taking them back to Myanmar to fight for a force that’s losing ground.
Jaker is just 19.
We’ve changed his name to protect his identity.
He says he was abducted at gunpoint last year by a group of nine men in Cox’s.
They tied his hands with rope he says and took him to the border where he was taken by boat with three other men to fight for the Myanmar military.
“It was heartbreaking,” he told me. “They targeted poor children. The children of wealthy families only avoided it by paying money.”
And he says the impact has been deadly.
“Many of our Rohingya boys, who were taken by force from the camps, were killed in battle.”
Jaker speaks to Sky’s Cordelia Lynch
An aerial view of the refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar
The situation in Cox’s is desperate.
People are disillusioned by poverty, violence and the plight of their own people and the civil war they ran from is getting worse.
In Rakhine, just across the border, there’s been a big shift in dynamics.
The Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic armed group has all but taken control of the state from the ruling military junta.
Both the military and the AA are accused of committing atrocities against Rohingya Muslims.
And whilst some Rohingya claim they’re being forced into the fray – dragged back to Myanmar from Bangladesh, others are willing to go.
Read more from Sky News:
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Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar – where refugees arrive from Myanmar after crossing the Naf River
Some are so aggrieved with the AA, they’re willing to support their former persecutors.
Abu Zar is one of those willing to take up arms.
But not for the military or AA, he says.
Everyone praying in the mosque with him is prepared to go back to protect their own cause he says – not anyone else’s.
“We want to fight for our rights because we have been demanding justice for a long time. But the situation has become unbearable,” he tells me.
Abu Zar has said he is willing to take up arms for his own cause
It’s estimated between 3,000 and 5,000 Rohingya have joined armed groups from this camp.
But the fight they are joining has become increasingly bloody.
In a cramped shelter, we meet Safura.
Safura came under fire as she fled Myanmar
Safura’s son Aman had his foot blown off
Five days ago she managed to get out of Myanmar but she had to be carried part of the way.
Her legs are riddled with bullet wounds and the pain is severe.
Her son, Aman, who lies on the floor next to her, has had his foot blown off.
They were injured she said, during an attack on her family home in the middle of the night.
“They entered our house and shot all my family members. My husband and mother-in-law were killed on the spot.”
The military denies forcing Rohingya to the battlefield. But the camps tell a different story- one of surging violence and vulnerability.
US President Donald Trump has told Gazans to hand over Israeli hostages or “you are dead”.
The threat, made over social media, came hours after the White House confirmed that US officials had broken with tradition to hold direct talks with Hamas.
The US has previously avoided direct contact with the group owing to Washington’s longstanding position not to negotiate with terrorists – with Hamas having been designated as a terrorist group in the US since 1997.
In a press conference on Wednesday, White House press secretary Ms Keavitt said there had been “ongoing talks and discussions” between the US officials and Hamas.
File pic: AP
But she would not be drawn on the substance of the talks – taking place in Doha, Qatar – between US officials and Hamas, but said Israel had been consulted.
Ms Leavitt continued: “Dialogue and talking to people around the world to do what’s in the best interest of the American people, is something that the president has proven is what he believes is a good faith, effort to do what’s right for the American people.”
There are “American lives at stake,” she added.
Adam Boehler, Mr Trump’s pick to be special envoy for hostage affairs, participated in the direct talks with Hamas.
A spokesperson for Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel had “expressed to the United States its position regarding direct talks with Hamas”.
Hours later, Mr Trump warned Hamas to hand over Israeli hostages or “it’s over for you” – adding: “This is your last warning”.
Hamas militants on the day of a hostage handover in Gaza in February. Pic: Reuters
On his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump wrote: “Release all of the hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered or it is over for you.
“Only sick and twisted people keep bodies and you are sick and twisted. I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say.”
Mr Trump met with freed Israeli hostages on Wednesday, something he referenced in his social media post, before adding: “This is your last warning. For the leadership of Hamas, now is the time to leave Gaza, while you still have a chance.
“Also, to the people of Gaza, a beautiful future awaits, but not if you hold hostages. If you do, you are dead. Make a smart decision. Release the hostages now, or there will be hell to pay later.”
Israel estimates about 24 living hostages, including American citizen Edan Alexander, and the bodies of at least 35 others, are still believed to be in Gaza.
Donald Trump with Benjamin Netanyahu in February. Pic: Reuters
The US has a long-held policy of not negotiating with terrorists – which it is breaking with these talks as Hamas has been designated a foreign terrorist organisation by the US government’s National Counterterrorism Center since 1997.
The discussions come as a fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire continues to hold, but its future is uncertain.
Palestinians amid the rubble in the southern Gaza strip. Pic: Reuters
Mr Trump has signalled he has no intention of pushing the Israeli prime minister away from a return to combat if Hamas does not agree to terms of a new ceasefire proposal – which, Israel says, has been drafted by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
The new plan would require Hamas to release half its remaining hostages – the group’s main bargaining chip – in exchange for a ceasefire extension and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce.
Read more:
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Israel has made no mention of releasing more Palestinian prisoners, a key component of the first phase.
Fighting in Gaza has been halted since 19 January.
Hamas has exchanged 33 Israeli and five Thai hostages for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
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