Girl burned by Israeli shelling among many Gaza wounded
STORY: "I used to think she was as beautiful as the moon," Walaa Akel says of her ten-year-old daughter, "and that there was no one in the world more beautiful."
The disfiguring facial burns of Hanan Akel show how Israel's deadly military campaign in Gaza is also inflicting terrible injuries on Palestinians young and old.
Hanan was out walking in al-Bureij refugee camp, where the family had taken shelter, and was caught in Israeli shellfire, her mother says.
She has spent the Eid al-Adha festival here at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital being treated for second and third degree burns.
"This is not Eid. I would be playing with my friends; I would be happy. I would be playing on the swing. But I went to al-Bureij, it was my destiny.”
Her mother Walaa says Hanan keeps wanting to look at videos and pictures of how her face looked before.
"I want my face to go back to how it was. I want to walk. I wish I could play again with my friends and my siblings. I miss my siblings.”
Hanan's plight also shows the dire condition of Gaza's damaged, under-equipped and understaffed hospitals eight months into the war.
Doctor Mahmoud Mahani, the plastic surgeon treating Hanan, said she has 35% burns and needs urgent care somewhere with more advanced equipment.
Walaa says Hanan wants her to brush her hair, but it would hurt her and she can't.
It hurts her to eat, to speak and when her mother tends to her burns.
"We keep thinking, what can we do for this girl? After the war, what will she be like? How will she get up? She keeps asking ‘mama, can you take photos of my face, I want to see my face'.”
Israel's military response to the October 7 deadly Hamas raids has left tens of thousands dead and wounded across Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities.
But since Israel expanded its offensive last month to include the southern city of Rafah, the border with Egypt has been closed and Gaza residents have been unable to go abroad for medical help.
