In January 2024 it was estimated that at least 10 children per day had lost one or both their legs in Gaza. That was before things escalated to the scale where nobody anymore can estimate the number of amputees, the number of orphans, the number of children lost under the rubble. What is certain is that almost every reputable source (United Nation, WHO, Doctors without Borders, Red Cross etc etc) say that the children of Gaza are the largest cohort of child amputees in the world. The other horrifying thing is that morphine and anaesthesia ran out months ago in Gaza so amputations are done without anaesthetic.
Amputations are done on children without anaesthetic.
Phantom Poets of Palestine
Two tiny little perfect feet
and ten tiny little toes,
kissed one by one by moonlight,
butterfly kisses on a tiny nose.
Two tiny little perfect hands
and ten tiny fingertips,
twinkle, twinkle little star,
precious smiles from rosy lips.
Little feet that will never run,
footsteps only heard in tortured dreams,
will never feel the sun upon their skin,
nights broken by fevered screams.
Missing limbs that became storylines,
that will tell of endless pain,
aching desperate phantom poets
who will write, “it was meant to be never again.
Never again,
Never again,
Never again.”
Ten tiny little perfect toes
and ten perfect fingertips.
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