Jamalat lost her left leg in an Israeli attack on a neighbouring tent on May 11, according to her mother, Rasha. She and her son were also injured, but their wounds were treatable. Jamalat’s injuries were so severe that doctors had to amputate her leg.
The family had been displaced from Beit Lahia in northern Gaza and was living in the tent when the neighbouring tent came under attack.
“We were an ordinary family. It was an ordinary day. We had breakfast and sat in the tent, and suddenly the neighbouring tent was directly targeted,” Rasha told Anadolu.
“My daughter was injured and lost her leg.”
‘Give me my leg back’
Rasha said Jamalat has asked her to give her leg back so she can move around and play with her brother. The girl still does not fully understand that the loss is permanent, her mother said.
Before she was wounded, Jamalat was “a very active child who loved to play,” Rasha said.
“But my daughter has lost many parts of her childhood,” she added, saying the girl now needs constant assistance even for basic movements.
Her mother carries her, combs her hair and helps her move around. Going outside, playing with other children and running have become difficult.
Thousands await prosthetic limbs
Jamalat’s case is among thousands of amputations recorded in Gaza, where amputees face severe difficulties obtaining prosthetic limbs and rehabilitation services.
Hosni Muhanna, a media and public relations officer at Gaza’s Prosthetics and Paralysis Rehabilitation Center, told Anadolu that the centre is under growing pressure as the number of amputees and people with paralysis rises.
He said the Health Ministry has recorded more than 6,000 amputations through the Sehhaty system, launched in partnership with the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Children account for about 25 percent of the centre’s beneficiaries, increasing demand for rehabilitation and prosthetic programmes that can adapt as children grow.
Muhanna said restrictions on bringing essential materials and supplies into Gaza have limited the centre’s capacity and lengthened waiting lists for prosthetic limbs and assistive devices.
She urged international organisations and rights groups to push for crossings to open and for raw materials, equipment and prosthetic components to enter Gaza.
The centre also faces severe shortages of manufacturing materials and equipment, including plaster used in prosthetic production.
In February, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the UN and its partners had brought only about 300 prosthetic limbs into Gaza since December 2025, despite more than 6,000 recorded amputations.
The World Health Organization said the conditions of 2,277 amputees in Gaza were assessed between September 2024 and May 2026. Of those, 18 percent were children and 76 percent had undergone lower-limb amputations.
Since a US-brokered ceasefire agreement took effect on October 10 2025, Israeli attacks have killed 1,303 Palestinians and wounded 4,336, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed more than 73,400 Palestinians and wounded more than 174,400 in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, according to the ministry.
