Gaza's wounded treated in Romania after rare evacuation

DW (English)

One father managed to leave Gaza with his children to get treatment for his injured daughter. Safe in Bucharest, he worries about his wife who wasn't allowed to evacuate with the rest of the family.

Transcript

00:007-year-old Sham's father checks her scars every day.

00:06How is your foot now?

00:08It hurts.

00:09Doesn't it hurt a little or a lot?

00:11A lot.

00:12Husni Saeed Altawil is not a medic.

00:14He's just a worried dad.

00:17Sham and her family stayed in several places in Gaza

00:21before they finally got out two months ago and came to Bucharest.

00:28The children are suffering psychologically.

00:31Since the war, they're so scared.

00:33They don't even want to go to the toilet alone.

00:36I have to be with them all the time.

00:40An Israeli airstrike did this to their home a year ago, Husni says.

00:46They survived, but 52 members of their extended family

00:50in the neighborhood were killed.

00:54We had just started eating when suddenly we found ourselves in another world.

00:59The explosion was really strong and loud,

01:02and all the dust and the ceiling collapsed on us.

01:07Sham suffered severe injuries.

01:10The medical care available in Gaza was not enough,

01:14and her wounds deteriorated.

01:17It got so bad that Sham was allowed to leave.

01:23Her siblings and father could go too, but their mother had to stay behind.

01:29Husni says Israel wouldn't give her permission.

01:34Here in Romania, medics are trying to make up for lost time.

01:39Orthopedic doctor Ioan Fodor removed pieces of shrapnel from her leg,

01:44something, he says, should have been done right away.

01:49The risk is if there's an infection, it won't heal properly,

01:52and that would mean another operation, and you'd have to remove pieces of bone.

01:57If the infection spreads and the bone deteriorates again,

02:00the risk is we won't be able to do anymore.

02:04The worst case scenario, he tells me, would be amputation of Sham's leg.

02:10Husni says he wants to remain positive,

02:13but that being on his own and the uncertainty make things overwhelming.

02:21It's really hard for me to take care of my children properly,

02:25and I really, really hope that their mother can come from Gaza.

02:30Then they would feel life is good again, feel safe, and be psychologically stable.

02:38They are all desperate to hear her voice, to know she is OK.

02:47Your mom's not answering. She doesn't have Internet.

02:51But try again.

02:53She is not answering.

03:00He tells the children their mother's silence is because of power cuts,

03:05but he doesn't really know why she didn't answer.

03:10Their days in Bucharest are dominated by her absence.

03:14They don't want to miss her and worry about her.

03:17The last time they spoke, she told them it was cold in Gaza

03:21and the wind had blown parts of her tent away.

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