Hani and Sarah... A Childhood with Severed Limbs and Shattered Dreams!
Hani will not be able to
crawl, let alone walk or run, and the football that children kick will remain a
distant dream. Although he has not yet turned five months old, in the eyes of
the occupation, he is merely a security target within its list of goals.
The occupation sees every
Palestinian child, even if they are an infant, as a future resistance project,
and their fate is either extermination or amputation, not only to amputate
their dreams but also to amputate their limbs, as happened to a large number of
children who lost one or two legs.
A Witness Despite His Young Age
Hani, at his very young age,
was a witness to one of the most horrific massacres. While in his mother's
arms, missiles struck their home, which was bigger than his fragile body. His
leg was amputated from the hip area, an unusual injury that complicates his
treatment and makes it impossible to replace with a prosthetic leg.
Hani needed urgent treatment
outside Gaza, but the suffocating blockade and the tightly closed crossings
showed no mercy, denying him that. The closed doors of Gaza do not allow even
the passage of life, so how can they permit the passage of treatment for a
child with an amputated limb in his early months?
His basic rights are missing.
Hani needed not just
treatment but also his most basic rights as an infant; baby formula, which has
become rare in Gaza, and when available, is priced higher than gold. Even
diapers sometimes exceeded a hundred dollars!
Hani, despite his young age,
is fighting a fierce battle for survival against fear, displacement,
deprivation, and hunger.
They killed Sarah's dream.
Hani is not alone in this
hell; Sarah is also here, the girl who dreamed of becoming a doctor and has
called herself "Doctor Sarah" since her school days.
But the "Israeli"
rockets shattered her dream, amputating not only her right arm but also her
left, and she lost large parts of her tender body, depriving her not only of
the dream of medicine but also of the ability to hold a pen or even a spoon.
Although she was not more
than the number of fingers on the hand she had lost, Sarah tried to use her
feet to help her eat some bites to fill her empty stomach during a famine that
deprived her even of a loaf of bread.
Where are the children's rights?
Hani and Sarah are wounds
from the wounds of Gaza, and a reflection of the endless oppression. With every
cry of pain from the mutilated bodies of children, the question does not cease:
Who will return to them what they have lost? Who will return their limbs, their
childhood, their dreams?!
Where are the international
institutions that boast about children's rights?! Where are their slogans about
freedom, protection, and care?!
It is unreasonable that she
did not see or hear anything about the massacres that lasted more than 21
months, carried out against children who were deprived of their most basic
rights: safety, bread, water, treatment, and shelter.
