Ghost of War Haunts Gaza Children in Al Thumama Complex in Doha | News

Children from the Gaza Strip who lost a limb in the ongoing Israeli war are trying to adjust to new life in the Al Thumama complex in Doha, but the horrors of war have not left their young memories.

The Al Thumama complex accommodates the wounded and families who were evacuated from Gaza stripAmong them is Maryam Ahmed (6 years old), who came with her aunt to Qatar last February, after her house was destroyed in an Israeli raid that killed her parents and younger brother, and left her with her right leg amputated.

Maryam, a little girl, walks around the corridors of the Al-Thumama complex in her wheelchair, and in her interview with Al Jazeera, she recalls the details of the day when the occupation bombed her house. She says, smiling innocently, that blood flowed from her mouth and ear, and that shrapnel hit her head and leg.

Fatima Faraj Allah, Maryam’s aunt, said that two missiles targeted the family home at nine in the morning. One of them fell on the room where her brothers and their children were, and the other hit the adjacent room, causing great destruction, but without exploding.

She added that Maryam was placed next to the martyrs who fell in the Israeli raid, thinking that she had been martyred, but she suddenly grabbed her aunt's finger, as Fatima recounts.

The Palestinian child, Karim Al-Shayyah, also lost his leg. He told Al Jazeera that the occupation forces bombed the “Mahran Restaurant” that was next to them, and shrapnel flew at them. He hid inside a barrel, but a shrapnel hit him.

The Al Thumama complex, located in the south of the Qatari capital, houses those in dire need of medical follow-up, who are seeking to adapt to a new life away from the devastating war that has been ongoing for 10 months.

Sabreen Al-Shayyah, the mother of Karim, praises the treatment received by the residents of the Qatari complex, and says that they deal very positively with the children and subject them to periodic follow-up.

It is noteworthy that in late June, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced thatUNRWAPhilippe Lazzarini said that the war in Gaza is leading to an average of 10 children losing one or both legs every day, meaning that about a thousand children have lost a limb to date.