A moment of joy for a boy who lost both arms in an Israeli airstrike
In a video, Mahmoud Ajjour is beaming as he skips into the breeze. He breaks into laughter as he watches his kite flutter in the sky, pulling it along with a string tied around his waist, in a moment that captured the irrepressible joy of childhood.
At 9 years old, Mahmoud has known more trauma than most will see in a lifetime. On Dec. 6, 2023, the fourth grader was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, a blast that severed one of his arms and left the other so badly damaged it had to be amputated. On Thursday, an image of Mahmoud, taken by Palestinian photographer Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times, was named World Press Photo of the Year, a haunting portrait of the impact of the war on children.
Mahmoud now lives in Doha, Qatar, with his family, after becoming one of a very small number of Palestinians to be evacuated from Gaza for urgent medical treatment.
When Mahmoud smiles, his happiness seems infectious, but some days are harder than others. 'There are bad moments for him,' his mother, Nour Ajjour, 36, told NBC News by phone from Doha, Qatar's capital. 'He doesn't want to play or go outside.'
'We keep him busy and have fun with him,' Ajjour said. She sent videos of him gleefully speeding down a hallway on an electric bike, steering with his feet on the handlebars, and using his feet to play with a lump of bright-green clay.
For now, Ajjour said, there's not much Mahmoud can do on his own, and he's impatient for prostheses, asking when he can have them so he can drink water on his own or help his family.
'He likes to help a lot, and I let him help me and carry things on his shoulder,' Ajjour said.
Doctors at Doha's Hamad Limb Hospital are currently fitting him for protheses, and in another video, he smiles brightly as he tries on a pair of prosthetic arms.
In Gaza, such treatment isn't possible, and Mahmoud is one of at least 1,000 children in the enclave to have lost at least one limb during the war, according to UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund. Many of the children, like many adults, underwent surgery without anesthesia as the health care system buckled under Israel's siege.
'The first few days were very difficult,' Ajjour said. Both of his hands were gone, and without anesthetic, Mahmoud was in both physical and existential pain.
'He would look at his hands and not see them,' the boy's mother said. 'He would scream and say, 'Where are my hands,' and the first thing he said was, 'How will I hug you, how will I pray?''
These days, Mahmoud is learning how to type on a computer, write and use a phone with his feet. Ajjour said he dreams of going to university and becoming a journalist so he can tell the stories of Gaza's children.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Gaza marks the start of Eid with outdoor prayers in the rubble and food growing ever scarcer
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinians across the war-ravaged Gaza Strip marked the start of one of Islam's most important holidays with prayers outside destroyed mosques and homes early Friday, with little hope the war with Israel will end soon. With much of Gaza in rubble, men, women and children were forced to hold the traditional Eid al-Adha prayers in the open air and with food supplies dwindling, families were having to make do with what they could scrape together for the three-day feast. 'This is the worst feast that the Palestinian people have experienced because of the unjust war against the Palestinian people,' said Kamel Emran after attending prayers in the southern city of Khan Younis. 'There is no food, no flour, no shelter, no mosques, no homes, no mattresses. ... The conditions are very, very harsh.' The Islamic holiday begins on the 10th day of the Islamic lunar month of Dhul-Hijja, during the Hajj season in Saudi Arabia. For the second year, Muslims in Gaza were not able to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform the traditional pilgrimage. In Gaza City on Friday, Sanaa Al-Ghola, a displaced woman from Shejaiyah, stood in the rubble of a badly damaged graveyard near a partially collapsed mosque. She had come to pray for her son, Mohamed al-Ghoul, who she said was killed in shelling last month after going to his grandfather's house to get flour. His father was wounded in the attack. 'We lost our home, money, and everything," she said, crying as she held her son's photo. 'There is no more Eid after you're gone, my son.' Families at a displacement tent camp in Muwasi faced a grim first day of Eid al-Adha. Tahrir Abu Jazar, 36, of Rafah, warmed up leftover lentils and cooked rice inside her tent, but said she had no bread to feed her five children, who sat on the bare ground nearby. 'There are no Eid celebrations now as there is no new clothes or sacrificial meat, or monetary gifts, or joy,' she said, reminiscing over Eid days before the war when the children had meat. 'My son went out and tried to celebrate Eid and was scared of the warplane, so he came back." Israel issues a new warning In the southern city of Rafah, nine people were killed on their way to try and collect humanitarian aid at various distribution points, according to officials at Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis, where the bodies were brought. Eight died from gunshot wounds and the ninth person from shrapnel injuries. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the hospital's claim but said it was looking into the report. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a newly formed group of mainly American contractors that Israel wants to use to replace humanitarian groups in Gaza that distribute aid in coordination with the U.N., told The Associated Press that reports of violence in Rafah were inaccurate and that aid distribution was completed 'peacefully and without incident.' In northern Gaza on Friday, Israel issued a new warning to civilians saying the military was about to undertake intensive operations in an area after it said rockets were fired toward Israel from the sector. Meanwhile, the military said four Israeli soldiers were killed Friday in southern Gaza when an explosive detonated as they searched a Hamas compound in Khan Younis, causing part of a building to collapse. Five soldiers were injured, one seriously, spokesperson Effie Defrin said. The war broke out on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 hostages. They are still holding 56 hostages, around a third of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages from Gaza and recovered dozens of bodies. Since then, Israel has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians in its military campaign, primarily women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures. The offensive has destroyed large parts of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of roughly 2 million Palestinians. UN warns of risk of famine After blocking all food and aid from entering Gaza for more than two months, Israel began allowing a trickle of supplies to enter for the U.N. several weeks ago. But the U.N says it has been unable to distribute much of the aid because of Israeli military restrictions on movements and because roads that the military designates for its trucks to use are unsafe and vulnerable to looters. The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome said Thursday that Gaza's people are projected to fall into acute food insecurity by September, with nearly 500,000 people experiencing extreme food deprivation, leading to malnutrition and starvation. 'This means the risk of famine is really touching the whole of the Gaza Strip,' Rein Paulson, director of the FAO office of emergencies and resilience, said in an interview. Over the past two weeks, shootings have erupted nearly daily in the Gaza Strip in the vicinity of new hubs where desperate Palestinians are being directed to collect food. Witnesses say nearby Israeli troops have opened fire, and more than 80 people have been killed, according to Gaza hospital officials. Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid and trying to block it from reaching Palestinians, and has said soldiers fired warning shots or, in some cases, shot at individuals approaching its troops. The GHF sent out a message on its Facebook site early Friday that it had closed all aid distribution sites until further notice and urged people to stay away for their own safety. It later clarified that the measure was only a temporary pause due to excessive crowding and that the agency had distributed all aid available Friday. Israel's military said that going ahead, distribution sites would be operated from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily and that outside those hours, the areas would be considered closed military zones that are strictly off limits. ___ Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Fatma Khaled in Cairo, Paolo Santalucia in Rome and David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this story. Wafaa Shurafa, The Associated Press
The Hill
7 hours ago
- The Hill
Less spending, high prices and fewer animal sacrifices at this year's Eid al-Adha celebrations
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Less spending, higher prices and fewer animal sacrifices subdued the usual festive mood as the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha was celebrated around the world. Eid al-Adha, known as the 'Feast of Sacrifice,' coincides with the final rites of the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. It's a joyous occasion, for which food is a hallmark, with devout Muslims buying and slaughtering animals and sharing two-thirds of the meat with the poor. Palestinians across the war-ravaged Gaza Strip marked the start of the three-day feast early Friday with prayers outside destroyed mosques and homes. For the second year since the war with Israel broke out, no Muslims in Gaza were able to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform the traditional pilgrimage. With much of Gaza in rubble, men and children were forced to hold Eid al-Adha prayers in the open air, and with food supplies dwindling, families were having to make do with what they could scrape together. 'This is the worst feast that the Palestinian people have experienced because of the unjust war against the Palestinian people,' said Kamel Emran after attending prayers in the southern city of Khan Younis. 'There is no food, no flour, no shelter, no mosques, no homes, no mattresses … The conditions are very, very harsh.' The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome said Thursday that Gaza's people are projected to fall into acute food insecurity by September, with nearly 500,000 people experiencing extreme food deprivation, leading to malnutrition and starvation. 'This means the risk of famine is really touching the whole of the Gaza Strip,' said Rein Paulson, director of the FAO office of emergencies and resilience. The war in Gaza and the struggle to celebrate were at the forefront of the minds of Muslims in Kenya, Imam Abdulrahman Mursal said as he led Eid prayers in the capital, Nairobi. 'We ask Allah to hear their (Palestinian) cries. 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Mohammad Ali Qureshi, one of the sellers, said this year his goats were fetching higher prices than last year: 'Earlier, the sale of goats was slow, but now the market is good. Prices are on the higher side.' Festival preparations also were peaking in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where many Muslims dye sheep and goats in henna before they are sacrificed. 'We are following the tradition of Prophet Ibrahim,' said Riyaz Wani, a resident in Kashmir's main city of Srinagar, as his family applied henna on a sheep they plan to sacrifice. In Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, Muslim worshippers were shoulder-to-shoulder in the streets and the Istiqlal Grand Mosque was filled for morning prayers Friday. Outside Jakarta, the Jonggol Cattle Market bustled with hundreds of traders hoping to sell to buyers looking for sacrificial animals. While sales increased ahead of Eid, sellers said their businesses have lost customers in recent years due to economic hardship following the COVID-19 pandemic. A foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in 2022 and 2023 significantly dampened the typically booming holiday trade in goats, cows and sheep, though Indonesia's government has worked to overcome that outbreak. Rahmat Debleng, one of the sellers in the market, said before the pandemic and the FMD outbreak, he could sell more than 100 cows two weeks ahead of Eid al-Adha. But on the eve of the celebration this year, only 43 of his livestock were sold and six cows are still left in his stall. Jakarta city administration data recorded the number of sacrificial animals available this year at 35,133, a decline of 57% compared to the previous year. More than 1.6 million Muslims were in Mina, Saudi Arabia, on Friday to perform the Hajj ritual, the symbolic stoning of the devil. Mina is where Muslims believe the Prophet Ibrahim's faith was tested when God commanded him to sacrifice his only son Ismail. Ibrahim was prepared to submit to the command, but then God stayed his hand, sparing his son. In the Christian and Jewish versions of the story, Abraham is ordered to kill his other son, Isaac. As Muslims around the world celebrated Eid al-Adha, the holiday was tinged with bitterness in the rebel-controlled city of Goma, in eastern Congo. Under the looming shadow of the occupation, hundreds of worshippers wearing colourful tunics and hijabs gathered at Goma's Stadium of Unity to pray for peace. The decades-long conflict in eastern Congo escalated in January, when the M23 rebels advanced and seized the strategic city of Goma. Despite the challenging situation in the region, those gathered expressed their gratitude for being able to celebrate the holiday. 'We were anxious because of the war, but by God's grace, we made it here,' Fatuma Ramazani, a Muslim resident of Goma, told The Associated Press. 'We prayed 'in' peace, and that is why we prayed 'for' peace to return,' he added. 'Islam is a religion of peace, so we can only pray for peace and for God's grace to help all those involved in this security issue to see how to prioritize peace,' Grâce Omar, another worshipper, said. In the crowded stadium, imams emphasized the importance of solidarity and prayer in difficult times. 'Today is a special day for Muslims, so I take this opportunity to pray to God to bring peace to Congo in general, and to areas plagued by violence, like Goma, in particular. It is time for people to say 'enough' to all that is happening in the country,' said Imam Sheikh Sabiti Djaffar Al Katanty. Eid al-Adha celebrations in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, were overshadowed by one of the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades. The severe hardship stems from recent government economic policies, intended to boost savings and attract investors. Instead, these measures have fueled high inflation and sent the naira plummeting to record lows against the dollar. The cost of rams for the traditional Eid al-Adha sacrifice, central to the celebration, has more than doubled since last year. Despite these challenges, some devout Muslims in Nigeria, where roughly half the population practices Islam, found reason for hope. 'We know prices are a bit on the high side and everything is hard,' Lagos student Amira Mustapha said. 'But we should look beyond that and see the positive side of things, celebrate, be joyful for seeing another year and pray for seeing many more years.' An event celebrating Eid-al-Adha on Friday brought together Christian and Muslim religious leaders and citizens in Turkey's southeastern city of Mardin, according to state-run media. Organized by the Mardin Municipality's Art Academy, attendees included Mardin Governor Tuncay Akkoyun, Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan Bishop Saliba Ozmen and Deputy Mufti Ali Uney, alongside congregants from both faiths. 'Recently we celebrated Easter. Today we're celebrating Eid al-Adha. Tomorrow there will be another holiday, and we will again be together, said Bishop Ozmen. Deputy Mufti Uney praised the gathering as a 'great example of co-existence' and wished for fraternity and solidarity. ___ Associated Press journalists Shonal Ganguly, in New Delhi, Dar Yasin in Srinagar, India, Inaara Gangji, in Nairobi, Justin Kabumba, in Goma, Cinar Kiper in Bodrum, Turkey and Dan Ikpoyi in Lagos, Nigeria contributed to this report.
Los Angeles Times
8 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Gaza marks the start of Eid with outdoor prayers in the rubble and food growing ever scarcer
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinians across the war-ravaged Gaza Strip marked the start of one of Islam's most important holidays with prayers outside destroyed mosques and homes early Friday, with little hope the war with Israel will end soon. With much of Gaza in rubble, men and children were forced to hold the traditional Eid al-Adha prayers in the open air and with food supplies dwindling, families were having to make do with what they could scrape together for the three-day feast. 'This is the worst feast that the Palestinian people have experienced because of the unjust war against the Palestinian people,' said Kamel Emran after attending prayers in the southern city of Khan Yunis. 'There is no food, no flour, no shelter, no mosques, no homes, no mattresses ... The conditions are very, very harsh.' The Islamic holiday begins on the 10th day of the Islamic lunar month of Dhul-Hijja, during the Hajj season in Saudi Arabia. For the second year, Muslims in Gaza were not able to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform the traditional pilgrimage. In Gaza City on Friday, Sanaa Al-Ghola, a displaced woman from Shejaiyah, stood in the rubble of a badly damaged graveyard near a partially collapsed mosque. She had come to pray for her son, Mohamed al-Ghoul, who she said was killed in shelling last month after going to his grandfather's house to get flour. His father was wounded in the attack. 'We lost our home, money, and everything,' she said, crying as she held her son's photo. 'There is no more Eid after you're gone, my son.' In the southern city of Rafah, eight people were shot and killed on their way to try and collect humanitarian aid from a distribution point, according to officials at Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Yunis where the bodies were brought. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the hospital's claim but said it was looking into the report. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a newly formed group of mainly American contractors that Israel wants to use to replace humanitarian groups in Gaza that distribute aid in coordination with the U.N., told The Associated Press that reports of violence in Rafah were inaccurate and that aid distribution was completed 'peacefully and without incident.' In northern Gaza on Friday, Israel issued a new warning to civilians saying the military was about to undertake intensive operations in an area after it said rockets were fired toward Israel from the sector. The war broke out on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 hostages. They are still holding 56 hostages, around a third of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages from Gaza and recovered dozens of bodies. Since then, Israel has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians in its military campaign, primarily women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry which does not distinguish between civilians or combatants in its figures. The offensive has destroyed large parts of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of roughly 2 million Palestinians. After blocking all food and aid from entering Gaza for more than two months, Israel began allowing a trickle of supplies to enter for the U.N. several weeks ago. But the U.N says it has been unable to distribute much of the aid because of Israeli military restrictions on movements and because roads that the military designates for its trucks to use are unsafe and vulnerable to looters. The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome said Thursday that Gaza's people are projected to fall into acute food insecurity by September, with nearly 500,000 people experiencing extreme food deprivation, leading to malnutrition and starvation. 'This means the risk of famine is really touching the whole of the Gaza Strip,' Rein Paulson, director of the FAO office of emergencies and resilience, said in an interview. Over the past two weeks, shootings have erupted nearly daily in the Gaza Strip in the vicinity of new hubs where desperate Palestinians are being directed to collect food. Witnesses say nearby Israeli troops have opened fire, and more than 80 people have been killed according to Gaza hospital officials. Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid and trying to block it from reaching Palestinians, and has said soldiers fired warning shots or at individuals approaching its troops in some cases. The GHF sent out a message on its Facebook site early Friday that it had closed all aid distribution sites until further notice and urged people to stay away for their own safety. It later clarified that the measure was only a temporary pause due to excessive crowding and that the agency had distributed all aid available Friday. Israel's military said that going ahead, distribution sites would be operated from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily and that outside those hours, the areas would be considered closed military zones that are strictly off limits. Shurafa writes for the Associated Press. Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Fatma Khaled in Cairo, Paolo Santalucia in Rome and David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this story.
