• 3 months ago
The UN has called the conflict raging in Gaza "a war on children." As Israel is trying to root out Hamas militants responsible for the October 7 attacks, it's the youngest who bear the greatest brunt.
WARNING: Report contains graphic images


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Transcript
00:00In many ways, nine-year-old Mahmoud is like any child his age.
00:07He enjoys playing with his father and beating his younger siblings at video games.
00:13During those moments, he is a happy boy.
00:16I am Palestinian.
00:18I am patient.
00:19I can take a lot.
00:24I can endure everything.
00:28But sometimes, as if out of nowhere, what he has gone through overcomes him.
00:34His mother tells the story, Mahmoud cannot.
00:38I saw Mahmoud lying face down.
00:43His head was moving and he was breathing, but his right arm was not there.
00:48And his left arm was completely crushed.
00:50He told me, Mom, you take my sister and go.
00:53I will be martyred.
00:54I told him, no, my love.
00:56I would never leave you.
00:58He fell from my arms twice.
01:00I could not carry him at all.
01:05That was back in December.
01:07Mahmoud's mother tells me the family were heeding Israeli calls to leave the northern
01:11parts of the Gaza Strip.
01:12Then an Israeli rocket landed near Mahmoud.
01:17In the days after the strike, because of the anesthesia and fever, he was coming in and
01:21out of consciousness.
01:22He was hallucinating when he woke up and he would look at himself and ask me, where am
01:26my hands?
01:27Why am I like this?
01:28And he would cry.
01:29I could not make him stop, so I would cry with him.
01:32After the injury, he became like a baby again.
01:35He needed help with everything.
01:41Slowly but surely, Mahmoud is recovering here in Qatar, along with more than 2,000 other
01:46evacuees from Gaza.
01:49Most of them are women and children.
01:51Many have serious injuries.
01:54Initially built to house football World Cup fans, this compound is now a microcosm of
01:59human suffering, caused by a war Israel says is justified to protect its people.
02:07Everyone here has a story of loss and tragedy.
02:11In November, Mahmoud, his wife and two of their children were on their way to a market
02:16in Gaza when they were hit by an Israeli airstrike, he tells me.
02:21She was everything.
02:30She was life.
02:36But thank God she left me the children.
02:38We were civilians walking down the street.
02:40All our lives, all we ever asked for from God was protection.
02:48His son is getting treatment.
02:50He misses his mother and his siblings, some of whom are still trapped in Gaza.
02:55Getting the family back together is all that Mohammed can think about.
02:59But so far, all his attempts have failed.
03:05As for little Mahmoud, in one sense, he's the luckiest of the lucky.
03:10He was able to get out with his siblings and both of his parents.
03:14It's a big reason why they say he's having mostly good days.
03:19But the memories of his home, now a pile of rubble, are always with him.
03:25I'm used to being in my country, playing with my friends and playing with my cousins.
03:31What I loved the most was playing with my cousins.
03:34I loved them.
03:36We would ride bicycles together.
03:38We would play soccer together.
03:40We would go swimming.
03:42We were happy.
03:49We had fun.
03:52Mahmoud wants nothing more than to be able to return home one day.
03:57But the Gaza of his childhood no longer exists.

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