The shattered limbs, burnt skin and broken bones of the passengers on board the Etihad flight to Abu Dhabi depict the horrifying reality of Gaza‘s destruction.
Dozens of patients, largely children, are being evacuated to the UAE to receive critical medical treatment on a commercial plane that has been converted into a flying hospital.
The Daily Mail was granted permission by the UAE authorities to join them on the Boeing 777 where we witnessed up close a scale of suffering that is difficult to comprehend.
These shocking pictures, which include a little boy who was shot at by the IDF in an ambulance, come after Israeli drone pilots this week killed three British war heroes dispensing aid in the territory.
WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT: The shattered limbs, burnt skin and broken bones of the passengers on board the Etihad flight to Abu Dhabi depict the horrifying reality of Gaza ‘s destruction
WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT: A little boy on board looks into the camera as he lays in the plane
WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT: These shocking pictures, which include a little boy who was shot at by the IDF in an ambulance, come after Israeli drone pilots this week killed three British war heroes dispensing aid in the territory
WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT: Patients onboard the commercial plane listen as a man hands out items
Motasem Hanouna survived the bombing of his home in northern Gaza that killed his family. The six-year-old suffered a shattered leg and severe burns. A few weeks later, the ambulance he was travelling in was attacked as he tried to reach desperately needed medical facilities.
This little boy is lucky to be alive but the toll of the trauma he has been through is still unclear. Metal rods protrude out of Motasem’s left leg. His burns are badly infected and he needs skin grafts. His parents and sister are all dead and it has been four months since he was able to walk.
‘When he sees other kids playing football or walking around, playing and jumping, he starts crying,’ said his aunt Dunya, 29, who left her own family behind to accompany him.
‘I ask him ‘What’s wrong?’ He asks me, ‘When will I be able to walk, to play football with them?’ ‘
Dunya has no idea when she will see her children again. She said: ‘I had to leave my country to accompany my nephew so that he can get the medical treatment he needs and get back on his feet, because he has no one else left. Not anyone. I had to leave my four children in Gaza.’
After undergoing treatment for a month and half in the north, Motasem needed to move south to a hospital with better facilities. While attempting the journey in February, the ambulance transporting him came under gunfire and the paramedic driving the vehicle, Mohammad Al-Omari, was fatally shot by Israeli forces. Two other medics were wounded.
WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT: On Monday, the Israeli army withdrew from Al Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest medical facility, after a two week raid, leaving behind scenes of total devastation
WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT: Dozens of patients, largely children, are being evacuated to the UAE to receive critical medical treatment on a commercial plane that has been converted into a flying hospital
‘We were extremely panicked and terrified in that moment,’ said Dunya. ‘We stayed at Al-Shifa hospital, until [the health authorities] coordinated again.’
Their attempt the next day was successful. Two weeks ago, the pair made it out of Gaza, however, Motasem is struggling to cope with the impact of his injuries.
Patient Abdel-Rahman, 16, had to drag himself along the ground to safety when bullets shattered his pelvis. He and his cousin had tried to visit their homes in Khan Younis after being informed the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) had left the area. But troops remained and gunshots suddenly rang out. Abdel-Rahman’s cousin was shot dead in front of him. The area was too dangerous for paramedics to reach the teenager.
‘So he crawled his way out, he crawled for almost 1.5 km. He kept crawling until he saw a young man riding a bicycle and he screamed for help,’ said his mother Suha Al-Issawi, 46, who was accompanying her son with her two younger children.
While Abdel-Rahman was receiving treatment in Al Nasser hospital, the enclave’s second largest medical facility, it came under siege by Israeli forces before being raided.
‘Abdel-Rahman was tied up and thrown into a dark room. They turned off the lights, he wasn’t allowed to eat, drink or even go to the bathroom. He cried day and night because of how much pain he was in,’ said Ms Al-Issawi.
‘He can’t walk, what kind of threat was he?’ she said, adding that her son saw people being beaten by Israeli troops and was terrified that he would be next. He’s been left deeply traumatised.
Eventually Abdel-Rahman’s father was able to move him using a wooden plank dragged by a horse. The rough journey was agonisingly painful but it was the only way to get him to safety.
WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT: It was a choice between disability or death for many patients
WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT: The Daily Mail was granted permission by the UAE authorities to join them on the Boeing 777 where we witnessed up close a scale of suffering that is difficult to comprehend
WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT: Last week the Al-Amal hospital in southern Gaza ceased operations after Israeli troops forced medics and patients to evacuate, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society
Reem Hamouda, 30, was eight months pregnant when her home was hit by an airstrike. Her father, brother, husband, three of her nephews and five of her neighbours, were all killed, she said. Her right leg was amputated below the knee, her hip was fractured, she has serious burns, a big wound on the right thigh and nerve damage. Hamouda’s baby girl was delivered but she survived only for a few minutes.
‘I have to turn my pillow over throughout the night because I sleep in tears,’ she said. Her son, who remains in Gaza, turned two last month.
‘I’m crying all the time. I want [my family] to be with me.’
Last week’s flight was the 15th medical evacuation to be organised by the UAE government since the war began following Hamas’s heinous attack on October 7 that killed around 1,200 Israelis and saw the kidnapping of a further 250.
The patients who make it onto the flight have endured an arduous journey across the border to the town of Arish in the north of Egypt’s Sinai, following a complex permissions process between Palestinian, Israeli, Egyptian and UAE security officials.
Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed more than 33,000 and wounded 75,000 people, according the Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, while simultaneously dismantling the healthcare system. There have been more than 400 attacks on healthcare facilities since October 7. Less than a third of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are still functioning, and none fully.
On Monday, the Israeli army withdrew from Al Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest medical facility, after a two week raid, leaving behind scenes of total devastation. Hundreds of bodies have been found across the complex, which has been left in ruins, according to Gaza’s Civil Defence. The IDF claimed ‘senior Hamas terrorists’ were using the hospital to ‘conduct and promote terrorist activity’. It said its troops had killed Hamas militants and seized weapons during the operation.
‘The terrorist base in Shifa has been eliminated,’ Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Monday.
WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT: The patients who make it onto the flight have endured an arduous journey across the border to the town of Arish in the north of Egypt’s Sinai, following a complex permissions process between Palestinian, Israeli, Egyptian and UAE security officials
WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT: Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed more than 33,000 and wounded 75,000 people, according the Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry
Greek anaesthetist Konstantina Karydi who works at the UK’s Oxford University Hospital said nothing could have prepared her for what she saw during her stint in Gaza’s European Hospital in the south last month.
‘What’s happening in Gaza is horrific. It’s beyond the human imagination,’ said Dr Karydi while describing dire medicine and equipment shortages.
‘It’s very hard to describe the trauma we saw. The whole leg would be an open wound. We’d do our best during surgery – fix the fracture, wrap up the wound but these wounds will get infected.’
It was a choice between disability or death for many patients.
‘[Medical staff] are doing their best but this is beyond human capacity,’ said Dr Karydi.
Abdel-Rahman’s mother said the situation in Gaza is unbearable.
‘The people in Gaza are exhausted. Hunger is ravaging them,’ said Ms Al-Issawi. ‘People don’t know where to go anymore, where to hide, where to take their children.’
Disembarking from the flight in Abu Dhabi in the early hours on Wednesday morning, an exhausted Ms Al-Issawi was visibly overwhelmed. Thousands of miles from her husband and eldest son, her home destroyed and on her own in a new country with a very sick son, she now faces a different battle.