Diplomatic correspondent
BBCMajid Shaghnobi cannot eat or converse like he used to. He cannot smile.
However together with his injured mouth lined by a surgical masks, his eyes had been beaming as he arrived at London’s Heathrow airport on a flight from Cairo, together with his mom, brother and little sister.
“I am glad to be in England and to get remedy,” the 15-year-old informed me.
He was attempting to get humanitarian assist within the Kuwaiti space of northern Gaza in February final yr when an Israeli tank shell exploded close by, shattering his jaw bone and injuring his leg.
“One among my associates helped me and took me to the hospital,” he says. “They thought I used to be lifeless. I needed to transfer my hand to point out them that I used to be alive.”
Medical doctors in Gaza saved his life and Majid spent months in hospital, respiration via a tracheostomy tube, earlier than he was evacuated to Egypt in February this yr – with Israel’s permission – for additional medical remedy.
Now he is within the UK for surgical procedure at Nice Ormond Avenue youngsters’s hospital in London to revive the perform of his face.
He’s the primary Gazan youngster to reach within the UK for remedy for battle accidents, nearly two years right into a battle wherein greater than 50,000 youngsters have reportedly been killed or injured, in accordance with the UN youngsters’s charity, Unicef.
His arrival follows months of labor by a gaggle of volunteer medical professionals who got here collectively in November 2023 to arrange Venture Pure Hope, which helps injured and sick Gazan youngsters get to the UK for remedy. It’s funded by personal donations.
“The UK is dwelling to a few of the finest paediatric amenities on the planet, but whereas nations just like the US, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland and plenty of others have stepped as much as assist, the UK has but to do the identical,” Venture Pure Hope says.
Majid’s arrival within the UK comes lower than per week after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer promised to evacuate extra badly injured youngsters, though the federal government has launched few particulars of the plan.
Majid’s medical workforce – all working totally free – will embrace craniofacial, plastic and orthodontic surgeons, with hospital payments paid for by personal donations.
“If we’re in a position to give him a face and a jaw which he can use then it will not be fully regular, however hopefully he’ll have the ability to feed himself and converse, and his facial expressions will likely be higher,” says lead surgeon Noor ul Owase Jeelani, a professor of Paediatric Neurosurgery at Nice Ormond Avenue.
“Hopefully that is going to make a big effect on how he lives and on his future.
“Our hope is that we can assist many extra youngsters like him within the coming months. It is our collective ethical duty.”
Medical doctors from the hospital have beforehand handled sufferers from Ukraine, and final yr helped separate co-joined twins in Israel.
Professor Jeelani is disillusioned that it has taken so lengthy for the primary youngster from Gaza to be handled for battle accidents within the UK.
“As a health care provider and as a human, I do not fairly perceive why it is taken us over 20 months to get to this stage,” he says.
Venture Pure Hope has recognized 30 critically injured youngsters in Gaza who it hopes to assist convey to the UK. It says the federal government’s announcement is “important and long-overdue”, however time is of the essence.
“Every single day of delay dangers the lives and futures of youngsters who deserve an opportunity to reside, to get well and to rebuild a life,” mentioned Omar Din, its co-founder.
In April, the group of volunteers secured visas for 2 ladies -13-year-old Rama and five-year-old Ghena – with life-long medical situations to even have privately funded operations within the UK.
They had been dropped at London after being evacuated to Egypt from Gaza, the place – with the destruction of the healthcare system there – they weren’t receiving the remedy they wanted.
Since I met them in early Might, Rama has placed on weight and Ghena, who was deeply traumatised and withdrawn, is noticeably extra playful.
Ghena has had laser surgical procedure to alleviate the stress in her left eye, which she was prone to shedding. And Rama has had exploratory surgical procedure for a severe bowel situation.
Each ladies are doing nicely, their moms say.
However they’re sick with fear – discovering it exhausting to eat and sleep – about relations left behind in Gaza, who at the moment are struggling to feed themselves.
“It is higher than Gaza right here,” Rama tells me. “There aren’t any bombs and no worry.”
However associates message her from Gaza, telling her that they have not discovered bread for 10 days and he or she says her older brother is sleeping on the road after first his dwelling, after which his tent, had been bombed.
“They’re hungry. So I do not wish to eat both. I really feel like I am nonetheless there with them,” Rama mentioned.
UN-backed consultants mentioned this week there was mounting proof that widespread hunger, malnutrition and illness is driving an increase in hunger-related deaths among the many 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza.
Majid, who suffered life-changing accidents whereas out attempting to get meals for his household, can be frightened about his two brothers nonetheless in Gaza.
“I am scared that they will die or one thing will occur to them,” he says. “I simply need them to be protected.”
