GAZA, PALESTINE - JULY 25, 2025: A 1.5-year-old Palestinian girl who lost her leg in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza is fighting to survive under dire conditions at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital. Zeina Abdulkarim Abu Verde was severely injured in an Israeli strike on the Jabalia area, which has faced relentless bombardment since Oct. 7, 2023, leaving thousands of Palestinians dead or wounded. Medical facilities across the Gaza Strip remain overwhelmed and critically under-resourced, with severe shortages of medicine, equipment, and personnel—putting the lives of injured civilians at even greater risk. “My daughter is slowly dying while she’s still alive,” said Lana Khalid Nasr, Zeina’s mother. “Because of the lack of medicine, there’s no treatment available at the hospital. My daughter’s condition is deteriorating, and she can’t move her leg. Whenever anything is done to her leg, she screams in pain. She doesn’t receive any anesthesia, no painkillers — nothing.” Nasr described the physical and emotional toll on her daughter. “She used to be the kind of child who loved the outdoors — she loved sitting outside and feeling the fresh air. Now, she’s afraid of everything. Even the sound of the wind scares her. My daughter is living in a state of trauma. She no longer loves anyone, and she no longer smiles.” Palestinian families across Gaza continue to endure mass displacement, widespread hunger, disease, and the loss of loved ones amid ongoing Israeli air and ground attacks. Humanitarian and medical aid remains far below the level needed to meet the population’s urgent needs. “What did this child do to deserve such a life? At her age, she should be playing, laughing, running around. She should be walking on her own feet. But now she can’t walk, she can’t move, she can’t do anything.” Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued genocide in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing over 59,600 Palestinians, most of them women and children. The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave and led to food shortages. Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave. Reporting by Hamza Z. H. Qraiqea // Writing by Mustafa Tuncer