Amr al-Ham's mother was pregnant in the ninth month when she took the family to visit her parents in northern Gaza in April. During the night, their tent was hit in an attack. The three-year-old's mother, his unborn sibling, two other siblings, and his grandfather were killed.
Three-year-old Amr al-Ham survived and was taken to an intensive care unit. With him was his father, who could hardly speak due to grief.
Now the boy is discharged from the intensive care unit, but is still being cared for at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. He is severely malnourished. The nutrient-rich milk he needs is not available in Gaza due to Israel's blockade. Instead, his relative Nour al-Ham, who is a trained nurse, feeds him mashed lentils through a syringe.
I tell him that his mother will soon come back, she says and continues:
Sometimes I give him a toy. But he cries. I think he misses her.
According to the doctors, Amr needs to be evacuated immediately from the war-torn area. Without advanced care, it is likely that his brain damage will lead to permanent damage.
His brain is still developing, says Nour al-Ham.
Will he be able to walk again? Speak? As long as he is in Gaza, there is no possibility of recovery.
Now Nour al-Ham has to feed him and change his diapers, and calm him down when his fragile body twists in pain.
I try as best I can. It's hard. What he's going through is not easy, she says.
Facts: The Gaza War
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More than 57,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been killed since the start of the war, which followed the terrorist-stamped Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The figures come from health authorities in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
A large proportion of the dead are women and children. Last year, Unicef estimated that one million children in the area are in need of psychological and psychosocial support.
Before the war, the population of Gaza consisted of 2.1 million people. Around 90 percent of them have been displaced within the area's borders, according to the UN.
Israel's intense bombardment has led to the destruction of a large part of the area's hospitals and schools, either completely or partially. The spring's Israeli blockade has also led to famine in Gaza.
In Hamas' large-scale attack on October 7, 2023, over 1,100 people were killed in Israel, the majority unarmed civilians. In addition, nearly 250 people, including children, were taken hostage.
Sources: Ocha, Unicef, and news agencies
