Palestinian amputee child arrives in US alone to get prosthetic leg
A 10-year-old Palestinian child has traveled all the way alone from Egypt to the United States to receive a prosthetic limb after she lost a leg in an Israeli airstrike on her family home in the Gaza Strip.
Baylasan arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport Saturday afternoon, said Heal Palestine, an American nonprofit that helped organize her medical treatment in the country.
The Palestinian girl was evacuated to Egypt after she was injured and lost a leg when an Israeli airstrike hit her family home in Khan Younis in November.
The 10-year-old made the journey from the Egyptian capital Cairo alone because her mother was also wounded in the bombing.
At the airport, hundreds of people gathered to support Baylasan after the long journey.
HEAL Palestine's co-founder and pediatrician Zeena Salman said Baylasan is “going to hit the ground immediately and go to her first appointment" on Monday.
“She’s going to get her prosthetic fitting and then have several weeks, if not more, of physical therapy to get her back and walking again.”
According to Gaza health officials, thousands of children have been wounded in Israel’s 10-month-old genocidal war in Gaza, many of whom are grappling with the loss of an arm or a leg.
UNICEF Communication Specialist Tess Ingram said at a press briefing in Geneva in mid-August that "a staggering number of children have been wounded amid intense and often indiscriminate attacks, their lives forever changed by the horrors of war.”
He said according to the latest data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health documents, more than 12,000 children – or almost 70 children every day – injured in Gaza since October 7.
"By far, what struck me most about this mission was the number of wounded children,” Ingram said.
As of July 7, Israeli forces killed at least 15,983 Palestinian children in Gaza, according to the health ministry.
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