Injured Palestinians Evacuated From Gaza Are In Agony

DOHA, Qatar ― Samira Thari recently told her six children still in Gaza that she doesn’t want to hear from them.

She thinks of them constantly, especially those most hurt by the violence there ― like her 22-year-old son, who is in a wheelchair after being hit by shrapnel, and her 14-year-old daughter, who’s been rendered speechless by the shock of the war. But she knows that for the family to get cell service, they have to leave their tent shelter and climb up a hill that has previously been targeted by Israeli forces.

“Don’t try to call me, because I won’t answer,” she told them on Feb. 23.

Thari has been in Qatar for nearly three months, since she woke up there after she was injured in an Israeli strike on a United Nations school. The attack killed her 3-year-old granddaughter, who had been sitting with Thari as she made bread for her family, and wounded Thari so badly that emergency workers put her in a body bag ― only realizing she was alive when her grieving sister noticed Thari’s eyes were still moving.

Medical teams moved Thari and her injured husband from hospitals in Gaza to an Italian hospital ship, then to Egypt and eventually Qatar. She’s now had five surgeries, and is awaiting one more in her back.

“If I had the option to stop treatment, I would go back in a heartbeat,” Thari, 39, told HuffPost last week. In addition to the concern for her children, her “heart burns” for her parents, who are 70 and 75.

“I’m not able to heal because of my mind and emotional state,” Thari said. “My therapist tells me to stop watching the news, but how can I stop? I have to check the lists of people being martyred. How can I stop?”

Since Israel began its devastating U.S.-backed campaign in Gaza on Oct. 7, retaliating for a shock attack by Gaza-based Palestinian militants that killed some 1,200 people, only a handful of the region’s 2.3 million residents have gotten to safety. Up to a thousand are believed to be living in Egypt after relying on their dual nationalities or bribes to travel through the Rafah Crossing, currently the only functional pedestrian exit point into and out of Gaza. And medical and diplomatic personnel have overcome bureaucratic and logistical hurdles to evacuate some Palestinians, like Thari, who needed urgent, specialized care.

About 700 Palestinian civilians ― among them 300 children ― are now in Qatar, local officials say, a group that comprises mostly wounded people but also some of their companions. In interviews with HuffPost in the Persian Gulf state, a U.S. ally that plans to treat at least 1,500 injured Gazans, evacuees described heartache over separation from their vulnerable loved ones, and deep disillusionment about the global response to Israel’s offensive. Despite Israel’s claims that its military operation is focused on the militant group Hamas, it has killed more than 30,000 people, most of them civilians, according to Palestinian authorities.

Perched on a beanbag chair in the courtyard of a residential facility just a few miles from the offices where Israeli representatives have visited for U.S.-backed discussions about a possible truce with Hamas, a 30-year-old mother named Watfah described watching coverage of President Joe Biden discussing the prospect of a cease-fire on Feb. 26.

“He’s doing it while eating ice cream, mocking us,” Watfah said.

Thari had particular disdain for governments in the Middle East. Palestinians have traditionally looked to fellow Arab nations for support, but in recent years, Israel has successfully convinced several of those states to establish ties with it without an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.

“The only reason this is happening to us is because of the silence of the Arabs,” Thari said, tearing up. “Arab leaders are too scared to stand up to Israel and America … It’s like spraying pest control on animals, that’s how many people have died.”

Views like these reflect not only how the ongoing war has traumatized Palestinians, but also a widespread wariness about discussions in Washington, regional capitals, and beyond about halting the fighting and negotiating a lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace. Simultaneously, the evacuees’ stories underscore the yearning for a respite among those who understand conditions in Gaza ― a goal that Biden and other key figures say they are working hard to achieve before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins on March 10.

“Our hearts are still back in Gaza,” Thari said. “I die a hundred times a day for my kids.”

Mohammed Obaid, 42, and his 13-year-old son Bahaa have been in Qatar since Jan. 18. Since they were hit by an Israeli airstrike on Nov. 6, both have had complex…