Amputees detail horrors of Israeli siege and battle to get on with life

Gaza: Among the thousands injured during Israel's three-week bombardment of the Gaza Strip are many whose lives will be permanently affected after they lost their limbs.

Suheir Zemo, a 47-year-old mother of seven, lost her right leg after an Israeli missile crashed into her home in the Tal Al Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City in mid-January, at the height of the attacks.

"I was in my bedroom when a rocket landed in the room. Suddenly my leg started bleeding severely. Then my husband risked his life and took me to hospital as ambulances were not allowed into the area," said Maher, as she sat in a wheelchair at the Al Wafa Rehabilitation Centre in Gaza.

At the centre, a number of amputees began the rehabilitation process. Al Wafa is the only private rehabilitation centre in Gaza, but that did not count for anything during the attacks, as it was not spared.

In one of the wards lie two young men in their early twenties - the first had his right leg amputated, while the second had his lower limbs severely injured, to the extent that he lost complete use of them.

"It was almost 1.15pm, when an Israeli tank shell hit our home in the Shaaf area of Gaza city. Only my father, my friend and myself were inside the home when it was struck," said Maher Al Habashi.

With agony written all over his face, Maher said: "We ran out of the home and suddenly two rockets fired by a drone hit the three of us. My father and my friend died, while I felt paralysed, realising I was hurt."

The young man who lost his right leg, Yehya Abu Saif, 20, described how he was injured on January 3, when Israeli warplanes targeted a mosque in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.

"We had just finished the evening prayer and as we got out of the mosque a rocket landed among the worshippers including myself. Later on I realised I was injured and as you see I had my leg amputated."

"Why do Israelis attack mosques, why?" Yehya asked, "Is this their alleged democracy?"

As the only facility of its kind in Gaza, Al Wafa is set to receive more people who lost limbs and are interested in beginning a rehabilitation process that can take weeks, months and even years.

Patients receive physical, functional, psychological and clinical support, and may receive cosmetic or other surgery to prepare them for the use of prosthetics.

The number and severity of injuries as a result of the Israeli attack were unprecedented and unfamiliar to Gaza's doctors because of the dangerous weapons used.

Chief of Intensive Care at Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, Dr Fawzi Al Nabulsiya, said: "Many of these cases we haven't observed before. The weaponry used is very effective, leading to amputation of limbs, especially the lower ones, (damage to the) spinal cord and cases of deep coma. The ICU here received 283 cases, equalling the total of cases we often receive in a period of six or seven months."

Such an emergency situation, created by the Israeli war on Gaza, has pushed the Hamas-run health ministry to transfer hundreds of patients to hospitals outside of Gaza, mainly in Arab or Islamic countries.

However demand is still high, especially for treatment and rehabilitation of people with disabilities. Hammam Nasman, spokesman of the health ministry in Gaza, said many Arab countries had extended assistance to help deal with amputees.