Gaza – Abdelrahman Ezzeddine
With an explosive bullet that claimed his right leg, Ibrahim Abdel Nabi—a displaced resident in the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis—arrived at one of the institutions providing humanitarian aid in Gaza, during his attempt to obtain some food assistance to feed his starving children.
Abdel Nabi recounts, “On 27 May, the circulating news said that food parcels would be distributed at one of the aid centers in an organized manner using ID cards. I took my ID and went to the Al-Alam area west of Rafah, where the aid center was located. When I got there, I was shot with an explosive bullet that immediately led to the amputation of my leg.”
He continues, “I bled for about an hour and a half, and my hemoglobin dropped to 8 from 15. After all that bleeding, some young men managed to carry me and take me to the Red Cross field hospital northwest of Rafah. I stayed there for about a month and a half to undergo treatment. During that time, my leg developed severe infections and complications, which led to further amputation surgeries.”
Upon returning to his tent, Abdel Nabi found his wife and children in an even more tragic state than when he had left them to seek aid a month and a half earlier, before his discharge from the hospital. He saw his 10-year-old daughter struggling to carry a 20-liter water container after managing—with great difficulty—to fill it from one of the few trucks supplying drinking water. Meanwhile, his wife and other children were forced to go from one charity kitchen to another, hoping to get enough food to keep them alive.
His children’s questions weighed on him like a choking noose. They would tell him that relatives or neighbors had managed to get food, while they had not, asking: “Why don’t you bring us what they got?”
These words deeply affected his morale, yet also became a driving force within him to face his harsh circumstances “at any cost.”
Creating Something Out of Nothing
Abdel Nabi tried to gather his thoughts to make an artificial leg using the simplest materials available, so he could move around, meet his family’s basic needs, and share in the new responsibilities placed on their shoulders after his injury.
He says, “They knew about my injury, and I explained my reasons to them. But their need and hunger were stronger than any logic I could offer. So I decided, with the help of my wife, to craft an artificial leg from the items we had in our tent and the few belongings we brought with us when we were displaced—so I could fulfill my duty as a father toward them. And I succeeded in making it.”
He adds, “It doesn’t work at 100% or even 90% efficiency—barely 30%—because it’s not a medical-grade prosthetic and isn’t made from suitable materials. But in any case, I can walk on it, and that helps me carry out part of my responsibilities toward my family.”
In creating this makeshift limb, he used a plastic pipe originally intended for wastewater transport, reinforced with two steel plates fixed in place with screws and metal wires to give it extra stability.
Unshakable Determination
On overcoming the challenges of building the prosthetic, Abdel Nabi says:
“My determination overcame every difficulty. I won’t deny that I faced obstacles during the process, and I had to repair it more than once. But my need to provide for my children’s daily life was my first motivation to overcome those challenges.”
He continues, “I didn’t care about how efficient the limb was, whether it might cause more wounds to my leg, or whether it was comfortable. All I cared about was being able to stand and move in order to secure food for my children.”
Abdel Nabi has been without aid for a long time, as all humanitarian organizations following UN protocols have ceased operations due to the occupation’s refusal to allow aid entry—most notably for UNRWA—on the pretext of preventing Hamas from seizing it. This is despite multiple independent UN reports refuting the occupation’s claims.
Faced with ongoing suffering, Abdel Nabi is determined to return to aid distribution centers to try to obtain flour and any other food to feed his hungry children—despite what happened to him last time, the loss of his leg, and the repeated incidents of killings and shootings by occupation soldiers and security contractors in and around these centers.
He justifies his decision by the urgent need to feed his family amid severe food shortages, the shutdown of UN relief agencies, and the absence of any entity delivering food to his household. All this, he says, forces him to choose a high-probability risk over the certain danger of starving to death.
A Human Appeal
Explaining why he was forced to make a prosthetic from scrap plastic instead of obtaining a medical-grade one, Abdel Nabi says:
“I received no response to my requests for the prosthetic I need. I went to the Jordanian hospital, Nasser Medical Complex, and the Kuwaiti hospital. None had artificial limbs, due to the severe shortage of medical supplies and the closure of crossings. Even simple dressing changes for my wounds couldn’t be done for the same reason.”
He adds, “I ask all of humanity to look at Gazans—especially the injured—with compassion.”
He affirms that Palestinian determination to go on living knows no limits and cannot be stopped by obstacles, but stresses that he needs help to overcome the dire conditions the war has made catastrophic. Even the simplest materials to implement his ideas are not available.
Abdel Nabi appeals to humanitarian organizations to evacuate him for treatment and provide a proper medical prosthetic so he can support his family and end the cycle of humiliation and hardship that his wife and children endure—after once living a life of dignity.
