When Rizk Tafesh lost his left leg in an Israeli airstrike on June 21, he thought he would never stand on his own two feet again. But that changed on Tuesday, when he was fitted with a prosthetic leg.
Tafesh was in northwest Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, when the airstrike occurred.
“I lost my leg, I lost my hope and my life. Everything was lost when I lost my leg,” Tafesh told CBC News.
“I am suffering so much. How can I support my child, how can I work? How can I move?”
Tafesh is one of thousands of people in Gaza who have had to undergo amputations as a result of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The World Health Organization (WHO) said in its latest report that at least a quarter, or 22,500, of those injured in Gaza since October have suffered life-changing injuries that will require rehabilitation services for years to come.
On Tuesday, a team of four doctors at the Jordanian field hospital in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza treated patients one by one, fitting them with prosthetic limbs.
Tafesh, an above-knee amputee, said he had no idea he would be leaving with a second leg.
Rizk Tafesh, an above-the-knee amputee, is fitted with a new prosthetic limb at a Jordanian field hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Sept. 17. A team of four doctors entered the town on Tuesday to help amputees injured in the Israel-Hamas war get fitted with prosthetic limbs.
“I thought I would never be able to stand up straight like before,” he said.
“My soul returned to this life with this prosthetic.”
When he returned to see his 10-month-old son and his wife west of Khan Younis, he said his family was shocked to see him out of the car and standing alone.
“I will be able to carry him and walk with him,” Tafesh said of his son.
His wife, Rania, said it was a special day for the family.
“Alhamdulillah, today is a happy moment and an indescribable feeling that he can now stand and walk,” he said.
“I was so happy that I forgot about the day he got hurt and the days we lived after that.”
Dr. Abdullah Al-Humaida, a prosthetics specialist, was one of four doctors who entered Gaza on Tuesday to help provide and fit prosthetics for those injured in the war.
Al-Humaida said it takes one to two hours to install the prosthetic and allow the patient to move around using it to feel the new, extended body part.
“We hope [we] “It can last until all patients in Gaza have prosthetics,” Al-Humaida said. “I hope we can stay together and be here for each other.”
Working with what they have
He hopes to provide prosthetic limbs to as many patients as possible.
The specialists currently only provide prosthetics for adults, he said, but he hopes they can help more patients in the future.
“We do what we have [to] and we pray that we will have something much better in the future,” said Al-Humaida.
“Now, we will [work] with what we have.”
Taha Afana also got a prosthetic leg at the hospital on Tuesday.
Afana was in the Jabalia refugee camp market when it was hit by an airstrike.
“I lost my entire leg. Before, I could move and work. Now I can barely walk, move or go downstairs,” Afana said.
“It's my leg, so I suffer a lot. When I walk, it's hard. When I sit, it's hard. When I sleep, it's hard.”
'I just want to run'
After getting a new prosthetic leg, Afana said she just wants to run.
“I just want to run. I just want to run and walk like I used to. That's what I want,” Afana said. “I want to be able to run in nature, carry my child, and support myself.”
A WHO latest analysis injuries resulting from the Israel-Hamas war, since its start on October 7 and July, found that severe limb injuries, estimated at between 13,000 and 17,000, were the main type of injury requiring rehabilitation.
The war began after a Hamas-led offensive in southern Israel killed 1,200 people and left 250 hostages taken in Gaza, according to Israeli figures. Israel's retaliatory strikes on the strip have killed more than 41,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Many of those injured had more than one injury, WHO said.
Long-term support 'urgently needed'
According to the report, between 3,105 and 4,050 limb amputations have been performed in Gaza since October 2023.
“The huge surge in rehabilitation needs has coincided with the collapse of the health system,” Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territories, said in a press release Thursday.
“Patients are not getting the care they need. Acute rehabilitation services are severely disrupted and specialist care for complex injuries is unavailable, putting patients' lives at risk.”
Currently, only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are still partially functioning, according to the WHO. Gaza’s only limb reconstruction and rehabilitation center, at the Nasser Medical Complex, ceased operations in December due to “a shortage of supplies and health care specialists being forced to flee their homes in search of safety,” the organization said.
“Tragically, the majority of rehabilitation workers in Gaza are now displaced,” WHO said, adding that the number of people with injuries requiring aid products far outnumbers the equipment available in Gaza.
Some 39 physiotherapists had died as of May 10 and inpatient rehabilitation services and prosthetic services were no longer available, he said.
Peeperkorn said “immediate and long-term support is urgently needed” to address the reported rehabilitation needs.
As for Tafesh, he says the prosthetic limbs have given him “new life.”
“I want to get up and run… my condition will improve. I will come back and survive.”