Inside Gaza's Factory Making Prosthetic Legs

As Gazans struggle to obtain the bare necessities of life, food, drink, clothing, and a place to sleep, their survival is often determined by their personal circumstances. Life is far easier for the able-bodied. 

Bomb craters split the streets, and piles of debris make once-familiar roads impossible to cross even for the able-bodied. You can’t find food. You can’t run when the bombs fall. You can’t carry your child or collect clean water. 

In the language of the Gazans, one’s own legs have become the primary means of transport—an expression in Gaza, “to take the number 11 bus,” means to walk. 

More than 10 children losing legs in Gaza every day  

One of the most shocking sights in Gaza’s war has been the thousands of children with amputated limbs caused by constant bombardment. Gaza has the largest number of child amputees in modern history. More than 3,000 children have undergone leg amputations, sometimes on both legs. 

In many other countries, a child who loses a leg gets help. A prosthetic. A wheelchair. A car to take them to a hospital or doctor for treatment. This is not the case in Gaza. 

Hospitals have been bombed. Gaza’s health system is collapsing. Medical supplies are running out or are already gone. The blockade preventing aid from entering Gaza has only made the crisis worse. 

Amputations are performed under extremely difficult conditions. With medical supplies depleted, doctors have been forced to carry out amputations without anesthesia or to remove limbs that could have been saved if medicines were available. Too often, children endure these operations without pain relief, and doctors have no choice but to amputate limbs infected from wounds that would normally be treatable. 

Hundreds of Gaza amputees need help 

The lack of medical care and facilities to help amputees later in life compounds their suffering, with many placed at further risk by their inability to flee the bombs. 

But there is hope. At the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City, our partners provide vital prosthetics, therapy, and wheelchairs. 

But supplies are running dangerously low. Your support can give children the chance to walk again, go to school, play with friends, and rebuild their lives. Together, we can provide critical care and hope to vulnerable communities facing crisis, wherever the need is greatest. 

Every step starts with you 

Aid alone cannot solve this crisis, and it is not a substitute for political and other long-term solutions – but it will save lives. Together, with your support, we will continue to be there for people wherever they are for as long as we are needed, in the coming weeks, months, and years ahead.   
 
You can help us continue our work in Gaza and around the world by donating to our emergency appeal.