Diyar, his wife, and his 3-year-old daughter Razan fled northern Gaza at the beginning of the war, after their apartment block was hit by an airstrike. Fleeing south on foot, stepping over dead bodies as they went, they were forced to move three more times to escape the violence. Finally, they arrived in Al Mawasi.
Though they thought they were safe, at 3AM on 1 September, Razan was shot in the neck. The bullet passed through makeshift walls of their tent, through the mother’s hip and into Razan’s neck, lodging itself millimetres from her spinal cord.
“It happened at night. I was laying down in the tent with my daughter next to me, when suddenly I felt a pain in my hip,” said Razan’s mother.
“At first, I had no idea it was a bullet. We were asleep and the pain and the noise had come out of nowhere. The bullet had passed through the walls of the tent, through me, and into Razan’s neck.
“It was only after I arrived at the Red Cross hospital that I realised I’d been shot. Razan was taken to UK-Med, so I had no idea where she was or if she was okay: I didn’t even realise it was the same bullet that hit both of us. We were reunited when I was brought to the UK-Med field hospital.”
Diyar explained: “My neighbours called me to say that both my wife and daughter were injured. They told me my wife was okay, but no one knew about my daughter. Our neighbours had picked her up and rushed her to the hospital. When they told me she was bleeding from her neck, my heart sank. I lost all hope. I thought I would lose her.
“I came as quickly as I could to the UK-Med hospital. When I arrived, I found the staff trying to comfort Razan, treating her as if she were one of their own. She was frightened and in pain, and they were calming her.
“The ambulance rushed her to Nasser Hospital for a CT scan and afterwards she was brought back here so that the UK-Med team could remove the bullet in the operating theatre. Razan was in surgery for nearly three hours, but when she came out of the OT, all the medical staff were overjoyed with the outcome. The surgery was a success, without any complications. I was so happy – one thousand thanks to UK-Med. They did a good thing for my child. If she’d gone to another hospital she could have died. Instead, she has been given a new life.”
“It was a miracle,” the mother said. “We weren’t expecting our daughter to exit the operating theatre with no complications.”
“Thankfully, my wound wasn’t serious, and I had no need for major surgery at the Red Cross hospital. I’m just thankful Razan was okay.”
Diyar said: “Razan is much better now, but she is psychologically damaged. She panics when she hears loud noises. She starts to scream and cry. This war is terrible for children. Razan is too young to have to endure any of this. We have four other children, and they have all witnessed such terrible things in Gaza – things that I can’t even find the words to explain.
“Razan is different now compared to before her injury. She’s not the same. She talks less. She’s afraid to even go outside. She says something bad will happen if she leaves the tent.”
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than 17,000 children have been killed in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. Around 40% of all patients at the UK-Med field hospital in Rafah – where Razan was treated – are children or young people under 18. More than a year of war has left thousands of children without parents, without homes, without food, and with limited access to healthcare.
