Malek’s Story: Standing Again After Gaza

Malek is from Gaza. This is his story, in his own words.

“Come on, Malek, clear the rubble under the window.”

That was the last thing I heard my mother say before everything changed.

After we returned from displacement to our home, or what was left of it, we tried to clear the rubble so we could live there again. Even surrounded by destruction, we kept saying Alhamdulillah. It was still better than living on the street or in a tent.

My mother, my siblings, and I cleared the debris piece by piece, trying to make a small space where we could sit and sleep safely.

As I was walking and clearing, a wire caught around my leg. I tried to pull it loose, and suddenly, it exploded.

I didn’t understand what was happening. It all happened so fast: a loud blast, pain, blood, and screaming all around me.

When I woke up, my whole life had changed.

My injuries were severe. I lost my left arm. My legs and my hand were badly injured and broken. I needed long surgeries, treatment, and rehabilitation just to learn how to live again.

Even before the war, my life wasn’t easy. I loved studying, but I had to leave school and learn a trade so I could help my mother and support my siblings. I tried to be someone they could lean on.

Then, in an instant, everything stopped.

The hardest part is that I used to take care of my siblings, and now I need help just to move. No work. No normal life. Even my body isn’t the same anymore.

But I don’t want to give up.

I’m learning to live with my new reality and to stand on my own feet again. Maybe the hardest part isn’t the pain. Maybe it’s accepting that your whole life can change in a single moment.

Still, I hold on to hope that one day I’ll be able to help my mother again, and live a normal life once more.

Read about FAJR’s medical evacuations from Gaza and the MedEvac program, or see FAJR’s evacuation cases.