00:02I used to go to school. I used to go out and swim in the sea. Now I can't do
00:07any of those things.
00:08At night we get scared because the night comes and there's no light. At night shooting happens and it is
00:14close to us.
00:18Fifteen-year-old Mahmoud Abushedek and eight-year-old Layan Abed are two Palestinian children out of thousands in Gaza
00:25who now bear the physical and emotional trauma of Israel's war following the October 7 terror attack.
00:32Mahmoud was severely injured last year when an Israeli airstrike exploded next to his family's makeshift home.
00:38Pieces of shrapnel remain lodged in both his head and his body.
00:43Layan's father, Tarek, was killed in 2023 when she was only five.
00:51Tarek went back into the house to bring some belongings. He never came back. Communication with him was cut off.
00:57We didn't hear anything about him for four days.
01:03Mahmoud is one of a generation of Gazan children missing limbs in what the UN says is the largest group
01:09of child amputees in modern history.
01:13As a teenager he is now relearning how to swim in a boys program at a center run by the
01:19international NGO Heal Palestine.
01:24As part of the program the children receive swimming training along with access to mental health services and sports activities.
01:32At the beginning of the project I noticed that the amputee children felt uncomfortable training alongside non-disabled children.
01:40However, as time passed and they continued their training they realized that the injuries were not an obstacle.
01:50Still the reality, particularly when it comes to resources, is stark.
01:57I want to get a prosthetic limb so I can walk like other children. When I see someone walking I
02:03don't want to feel sad. When I see children playing I don't want to feel sad either.
02:08Even Layan, who is finally able to attend school for the first time in three years, is only able to
02:15go three days a week.
02:18I wish I could live like the children of the world in safety and peace. And when I grow up
02:23I want to become a doctor.
02:27I lost friends in the war as well as five of my cousins. They were all my age and they
02:33were killed. Now I have no friends to play with.
02:38I'm afraid of shelling and I'm afraid that we might get displaced again. What if they strike a house next
02:45to us and I can't find my crutches? How will we escape?
02:50It would all be for nothing.
