Ahmed Shabat, a three-year-old boy who lost his family and two legs in three Israeli bombardments in the Gaza Strip, was one of the wounded Palestinians who managed to reach Egypt via the Rafah crossing on Nov. 26.
“Shabat was subject to frequent raids in Gaza: the first bombardment in Beit Hanoun killed his father, mother, and brother, and the second one in Sheikh Radwan injured him slightly, and the third one in a shelter in the al-Nuseirat refugee camp took his legs,” said Ibrahim abu-Amsha, the boy’s uncle who accompanied him to Egypt for treatment.
Shabat’s life was at risk before he was transferred to Egypt’s New Administrative Capital Hospital because of the poor conditions of the hospitals in Gaza.
The boy lost a lot of blood after a surgery in a Gazan hospital, and for the first three days afterward, he was unable to get his wounds cleaned due to a lack of painkillers, abu-Amsha recalled.
“We had removed some contaminated skin on his legs and prescribed minerals and vitamins to compensate for what he had lost,” said Osama El-kholy, a pediatrician at the Egyptian hospital. “Later he will undergo a plastic surgery, during which we can ensure that his blood flow is not blocked and bone thickness is fit.”
“His health conditions are now stable thanks to the Egyptian medical team. But, he is still scared and emotionally traumatized,” said abu-Amsha, adding that he hopes the boy can stay in Egypt until he fully recovers.
The New Administrative Capital Hospital east of Cairo is one of the Egyptian hospitals designated to receive injured Palestinians transferred from the besieged Gaza Strip. For weeks, medical staff there has been treating premature babies transferred from the Palestinian enclave around the clock.
The newborns were from Gaza’s largest hospital Al-Shifa, which was paralyzed after it ran out of power, water, and oxygen following the Israeli attacks on Gaza City.
“Upon instructions of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, Egyptian hospitals have entered a state of alert, including us,” said Mohamed Zayed, general manager of the Egyptian hospital.
His hospital has received 15 premature babies — more than half of the 28 minor evacuees arrived in Egypt on Nov. 20. The baby patients, most of whom were suffering from life-threatening sepsis dehydration and severe anemia, were immediately put in emergency incubators for treatment.
Currently, eight babies have left the intensive incubators in good condition, and are now in follow-up facilities where they are fed and monitored, and they are expected to be discharged very soon, Zayed said, adding that seven others are still under treatment inside the intensive incubators.
Egypt’s State Information Service Chairman Diaa Rashwan said on Nov. 29 that 575 injured Gazans had been admitted to Egyptian hospitals for treatment since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict in early October.
Last week, Egypt’s Ministry of Health and Population launched an initiative to treat 1,000 children wounded in Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Following the collapse of a fragile week-long humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas on Dec. 1, Israel has resumed its deadly siege and bombardment of the Palestinian enclave. Martin Griffiths, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said on Thursday the current humanitarian program in Gaza “is no longer functioning well.”
