Aid groups warn that Israeli restrictions on materials such as plaster of Paris have left prosthetic limbs in short supply for Gaza’s nearly 5,000 war amputees – a quarter of them children – pushing the enclave’s per capita amputee rate above even landmine-scarred Cambodia, according to medical sources and aid organizations.
Fourteen-year-old Fadel al-Naji used to be a keen footballer but is now largely confined to his home in Gaza City since both legs were severed in an Israeli drone attack in September. He sits sullenly on a couch with one hollow pant leg dangling and the other tucked into his waist beside his 11-year-old brother, who lost an eye in the same strike.
"He has become withdrawn and isolated," said his mother, Najwa al-Naji, showing old videos of him doing kick-ups on her phone.
"It is as if he is dying slowly, and I wish that they would fit him with prosthetic limbs." But those are in scarce supply because of Israeli restrictions on materials like plaster of Paris, seven aid and medical sources told Reuters.
Israel, which unleashed a two-year genocidal war on the Palestinian enclave, cites security concerns as the reason for restrictions. Taken together with Gaza's pre-war amputee population provided by Palestinian health officials, its per capita amputee rate now exceeds even Cambodia, aid group Humanity & Inclusion said.
