As Gaza’s hospitals and supply routes have been devastated, people who lost limbs in the October 2023 conflict are fashioning improvised prosthetics from sewage pipes, wire and nails to regain mobility. An estimated 42,000 Palestinians have sustained life-changing injuries, with roughly 6,000 amputations. Children make up about a quarter of amputations; one nine-year-old, Rateb, now uses a homemade pipe prosthetic to play again. UN agencies report tens of thousands of children disabled, killed or wounded amid the wider humanitarian crisis.
Gaza Amputees Fashion Makeshift Prosthetics from Pipes and Wire to Reclaim Mobility
Gaza amputees fashion makeshift prosthetics to rejoin daily life
Facing the collapse of medical infrastructure and severe shortages of supplies, Palestinians who lost limbs in the October 2023 conflict are improvising prosthetics from sewage pipes, wire, nails and other scavenged materials to regain mobility and independence.
Since the fighting began in October 2023, roughly 42,000 people in Gaza have suffered life-changing injuries, and approximately 6,000 have had amputations or sustained severe limb or spinal damage. Aid organisations say children account for about a quarter of those amputations, leaving Gaza with the world’s highest per-capita rate of child amputees over the past two years.
One of those children is nine-year-old Rateb Abu Qaliq, who lost a leg when an Israeli strike hit his home and killed his mother and brother.
"Before the amputation, I used to take part in many different sports," Rateb told Al Jazeera. After his operation he found he could no longer play and was left in tears when he tried to kick a football.
In Khan Younis, his cousin Ahmed Abu Qalik and friends repurposed an old section of sewage pipe and some string into a crude prosthetic so Rateb could rejoin games.
"We found a pipe longer than his leg, cut it to size and tied it with rope so he could play football and take part in other activities. Now he is happy and can do many things," Ahmed said.
Evacuations from Gaza for advanced limb treatment have been rare. In early September the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) reported that at least 21,000 Palestinian children had been left disabled in Gaza since October 2023. UNICEF estimates more than 64,000 children have been killed or wounded in the enclave.
Another example is Ibrahim Abdel Nabi, a father of four who lost a leg after being shot while queuing for food at a distribution site run by GHF, a controversial aid operation reportedly backed by Israel and the United States. Eyewitnesses and some accounts say the queues were repeatedly attacked; thousands of Palestinians were wounded or killed as people tried to access food.
A month and a half after leaving hospital, Abdel Nabi and his wife used a piece of sewage pipe, wire and nails to build a basic prosthetic leg. "The main purpose of this prosthetic limb is to restore my ability to move so that I can support my family and children," he told Al Jazeera. "I love life and I am fighting to continue living it."
The human cost of the war has been enormous: reporting places the death toll among Palestinians in Gaza at over 69,000 and the number of wounded in excess of 170,000. In the face of destroyed medical infrastructure and restricted access to essential supplies, affected people and communities are relying on ingenuity and improvised solutions to survive and rebuild daily life.
Help us improve.
