Turkish Red Crescent helps elderly Gaza man walk again after Israel confiscated his prosthetic limb

GAZA CITY, Palestine (MNTV) – After undergoing lengthy medical treatment in Egypt, elderly Palestinian Mahmoud Fouad al-Dahshan returned to the Gaza Strip with hopes of walking again with a prosthetic limb to replace the foot he lost during Israel’s three-year genocide in the enclave.

But those hopes were dashed when Israeli soldiers took his prosthetic limb. Then, the Turkish Red Crescent gave him renewed hope of walking again.

Dahshan, 64, was injured in early November 2023 when an Israeli bombardment struck his family’s home in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood.

Speaking to Anadolu, he said Israeli soldiers gave him a choice while he was returning from Egypt in May: surrender his prosthetic limb or the wheelchair he relied on. He chose the wheelchair and returned to Gaza without his prosthesis.

“The Israeli army arbitrarily confiscated the prosthetic limb without giving any reason or explaining why it posed a threat to them,” he said.

Life-changing injuries

Dahshan’s injuries were so severe that doctors had to amputate his left foot. The lack of medical equipment and supplies, compounded by the Israeli blockade, prevented doctors from providing the treatment he needed.

He has since spent nearly three years living with the consequences. During that time, he traveled to Egypt for treatment, where he was fitted with a prosthetic limb to compensate, at least in part, for his amputated foot.

For Dahshan, the prosthetic was more than a medical device. It offered him a way to regain his mobility and reduce his dependence on others. But that hope disappeared when he was forced to leave the limb behind on his return to Gaza.

He said another prosthetic limb belonging to an injured woman traveling with him was also confiscated and never returned, “so she entered Gaza as she had left it.”

A new journey of hope

At the Prosthetics and Orthotics Center affiliated with Gaza Municipality, Dahshan has begun a new journey to regain what he lost, this time with support from the Turkish Red Crescent.

As technicians took measurements in preparation for making him a new prosthetic limb, Dahshan held on to a simple but deeply meaningful hope: to stand and walk again without a wheelchair and reclaim part of the independence he lost with his injuries.

“I came here hoping to have a new prosthetic limb fitted to replace the one the (Israeli) occupation took from me and to begin a new treatment journey to help me walk and move without needing a wheelchair,” he said.

Dahshan thanked the Turkish Red Crescent for supporting the project, which provides prosthetic limbs to the wounded and amputees in the Gaza Strip.

“I extend my deepest thanks to the brothers at the Turkish Red Crescent who contributed to supporting this project to help the wounded of the Gaza Strip, and I ask Allah to reward them with goodness,” he said.

Two-phase project

Saadi Dabour, director of the Turkish Red Crescent’s office in Gaza, told Anadolu that the project aims primarily to “help people who have lost limbs regain mobility and carry out their daily activities.”

Dabour said prosthetic limbs were fitted for 10 injured people during August and September, while a second phase covering another 10 cases is scheduled to begin the following month.

But fitting a prosthetic limb is only part of the challenge. Dabour said the project faces “severe shortages of the raw materials and essential components needed to manufacture prosthetic limbs in the Gaza Strip.”
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He described the shortages as a “major obstacle” for thousands of amputees who need rehabilitation and prosthetic services at a time when demand for such care continues to grow.

To help meet some of these needs, the Prosthetics and Orthotics Center in Gaza partnered with the Turkish Red Crescent on a humanitarian project aimed at helping amputees regain mobility and return to their daily lives.

More than 6,000 amputations

The cases supported by the project represent only a small part of the wider crisis facing amputees in Gaza.

Husni Muhanna, director of public relations at the Prosthetics and Orthotics Center affiliated with Gaza Municipality, said the center has continued providing services to wounded people and amputees since the beginning of the war, despite the severe conditions in the Gaza Strip.

Muhanna told Anadolu that more than 6,000 amputations had been recorded in the Sehhaty system affiliated with the Palestinian Health Ministry and the International Committee of the Red Cross during the war.

The center also faces shortages of the raw materials needed to manufacture prosthetic limbs and provide its services amid restrictions on bringing supplies into Gaza, including plaster and other essential materials, he said.

“The challenges are significant because of the blockade and shortage of equipment, but the center’s staff continues working with tremendous efforts to reach as many wounded and amputees as possible,” Muhanna said.

He said the partnership will support around 20 amputees by providing them with suitable prosthetic limbs in two phases.

From the tent to the streets

At another part of the center, young Uday Abu Warda was undergoing physical therapy and walking exercises with a prosthetic limb fitted during the project’s first phase.

For Uday, the prosthetic limb is more than a means of movement; it “has become a dividing line between two stages of my life.”

He told Anadolu that his leg was amputated on Oct. 10, 2023 following an Israeli bombardment in the early days of the war, when Gaza lacked the equipment and medical capabilities needed to provide prosthetic services.

Abu Warda was unable to resume a normal life for some time before benefiting from the prosthetics project.

“Thanks to God and then to the efforts of the Turkish Red Crescent, which provided me with this prosthetic limb. I have returned to life, and here I am carrying out many aspects of my daily life,” he said.

“After I had the prosthetic limb fitted, I felt a great improvement in my work and activities … Now I can go out and walk with my friends, after I had been confined to the tent all the time,” he added.

Since Oct. 8, 2023, Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians and injured over 175,000, while 90% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been destroyed.