The features of ten-year-old child Rateb Abu Qaliq summarize the story of an entire Palestinian generation whose dreams were shattered before their bodies under the weight of the ongoing war. Rateb, who lived in the city of Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, did not realize that the journey of forced displacement south would strip him of his most precious possessions, as an occupation raid ambushed his family last month while they were heading to Khan Yunis, turning their path into a scene of blood and rubble.
The little one woke up in the hospital to face a bitter reality. He learned of the martyrdom of his mother, Mariam, and his younger brother, Hamid, while his tender body struggled to survive after severe injuries. Rateb underwent five complex surgeries, including interventions in the liver, intestines, and stomach, and ended with the doctors' decision to amputate his leg to save his life, leaving him displaced in Deir al-Balah, watching the world from a bed of helplessness and orphanhood.
In the absence of prosthetics and the suffocating medical blockade imposed on the Strip, Rateb's family did not surrender to despair. Instead, his cousin Ahmed, with the help of relatives, took the initiative to create an alternative solution. They salvaged a plastic water pipe from sewage waste, cleaned it, cut it, and prepared it to be a rudimentary prosthetic limb, in an attempt to lift the child out of stagnation and give him a chance to stand again.
Although this plastic leg caused him to fall repeatedly, joy appeared on Rateb's face every time he managed to stand. These attempts were not just physical movements, but a declaration of a child's will to refuse to break before the war machine, and to try to cling to what remained of his childhood amidst tragic living and health conditions in displacement centers.
The heartache is evident when Rateb tries to join his friends in playing football, as the rudimentary limb fails him whenever he tries to kick the ball hard, causing him to fall to the ground amidst a sad silence. He watches his friends running and scoring goals in the dusty displacement camps, while he remains a prisoner of a simple dream of obtaining a real prosthetic limb that will return him to the ranks of players as he was before the injury.
Rateb Abu Qaliq's cry represents a humanitarian appeal highlighting the suffering of thousands of injured people in the Gaza Strip who lack the most basic medical rehabilitation. His dream of running again is not just a sporting desire, but an attempt to expel the images of bombing and destruction from his memory, and to reclaim a part of his life that the occupation stole, awaiting a day when he can chase the ball without his plastic leg betraying him.
Every time Rateb looks at his friends running, his heart aches with longing for his mother and brother, but he gets up again, trying to stand on his plastic leg.
شارك برأيك
With a plastic pipe and strong will.. a Gazan child faces leg amputation with innovation