Israel’s attacks on Gaza took away almost everything that Yahya Hamad had ever known.
The nine-year-old’s parents, sister and two brothers were killed when a rocket flattened the Gaza home near Khan Younis where they’d been sheltering in early February.
Yahya barely survived, but he was buried under crushed brick and concrete, shattering several bones in his arms and legs.
For the last month, amid intensifying Israeli attacks, he has been recuperating in a Rafah hospital, but doctors there said his injuries are so severe that they wouldn’t be able to do much more to help him.
Getting out of Gaza — even for the badly injured — is extraordinarily difficult, involving a lengthy bureaucratic process with no guarantee of success at the end.
WARNING: This story contains distressing images | A Palestinian boy in Gaza who was orphaned and severely injured in an Israeli airstrike is now being transferred to a hospital in Egypt. Out of the warzone, he hopes to find his family in Canada, but obstacles remain for him and many others in similar situations.
But last week, after a month of waiting, the little boy finally got some good news — along with some hope. Palestinian health officials, including Hamas — which administers hospitals in Gaza, the government of Egypt and Israel’s military, all agreed to let the little boy leave the territory to get treatment in Egypt.
It’s the first stage in a long journey that could possibly culminate with him getting a new home in Canada.
“I’m happy to be going abroad for treatment,” Yahya told a videographer working for CBC News in Rafah.
“I want to see my uncle in Canada.”
Yahya Hamad, 9, lost his entire family in a bombing last month but is now bound for Egypt to get much-needed medical treatment for his injuries and figure out where his final destination will be afterwards.
For all that Yahya has lost, being able to leave Gaza is not an option that’s available to many.
Dr. Jabr Al-Shaer, who oversees the transfer of patients out of Rafah’s Al Najjar hospital to Egypt, says the process is cumbersome and can often take weeks to get permission, even for severely injured patients.
He told CBC News in an interview that there are “thousands” of people wounded by Israeli attacks that require better care than his hospital can provide, but only a few are ever approved to leave — and even then the logistics of getting them out causes yet more delays.
Yahya’s ‘uncertain’ journey
Earlier this week, staff carefully transferred Yahya from his hospital bed into a wheelchair and then into the back of an ambulance for the ride to the Rafah crossing and onwards to a hospital in the Egyptian border town of Arish.
What happens to him next, and where he will go, is uncertain.
Dr. Jabr Al-Shaer says medical transfers are not keeping up with demand when there are thousands injured and only dozens can escape to get the longer term medical treatment they need.
His uncle Maher Hamad lives in Montreal and has been in frequent contact with the boy and another relative who’s travelling with him.
“From the perspective of his emotional state and the situation he was living in, this [Yahya leaving] is a good thing,” Hamad told CBC News in an interview.
But resettling him in Canada will be challenging.
Ottawa’s Gaza Family Reunification program has thus far not been able to help anyone who has managed to flee the territory come to Canada.
Although there are theoretically spots in the program for 1,000 people, the difficulty of getting out of Gaza has rendered the program ineffective.
An email from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship said 32 people who’ve managed to leave Gaza have been given approval to come to Canada, but it’s not clear that any have actually been able to make the trip.
$40K in medical bills
Even though Yahya has cleared the huge hurdle of being able to leave, other major obstacles remain.
In his case, it’s the huge cost of his medical bills, which would have to be borne by his Canadian sponsor, his uncle.
“His full medical costs will not be covered by the [Canadian] government but by me,” said Hamad. “Medical costs in Canada are not cheap.”
In an earlier interview, the family estimated they needed to find $40,000 to cover the boy’s treatment and recovery. So far, a GoFundMe page set up by supporters has raised $1,850.
There may be other non-Canadian options for Yahya, however, that may make more sense economically.
“Four countries are accepting injured people [from Gaza]: Egypt, Emirates, Qatar and Turkey,” said Hamad. “They get them out and cover [medical] costs in full.”
Hamad has another brother in Turkey so, at least initially, the option of Yahya going there may make more sense.
The little boy is travelling with a distant aunt, Raja Hamad, who’s ill herself and unable to look after the boy in the long term.
“We are in contact and everyone tells me God willing they will help Yahya,” she told CBC News.
Humanitarian officials worried
With Israel threatening to launch a ground invasion of the densely packed Rafah area, humanitarian officials are especially worried about the fate of 600,000 other children who are crowded together, living in tents and temporary shelters.
UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who’s in Rafah now, said if any heavy fighting or intense air attacks occur in Rafah, it will create a “bloodbath,” with children bearing the brunt of the casualties.
“It’s a city of children,” said Elder. “It really is. It’s heaving with children.
UNICEF estimates at least 17,000 Palestinian children have either been orphaned by the war or left without any close relatives.
In an e-mail exchange with CBC News, the UN agency said it does not know how many orphaned or injured children from Gaza have been able to exit the war zone.
One of the largest relocations occurred on March 11, when Palestinian authorities in Gaza agreed to transfer 68 orphans run by the NGO SOS Children’s Village to a safer facility in the West Bank.
Health officials in Gaza say more than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s retaliation to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, where around 1,200 people were killed in southern Israel.
UN agencies estimate at least 12,300 of the Palestinians who have been killed are children.
