31/07/2024
I haven't posted here in a while, but The Atavist Magazine's new story warrants it.
Layan Albaz, a 14-year-old girl from Gaza, Layan lost two sisters, a niece, and a newborn nephew in an Israeli air strike last October. She also lost both her legs. We don't know exactly how many Palestinian children have lost limbs in the war. For now we have a single statistic to go by: Between Oct 7 and Nov 29, 2023, UNICEF reported that more than 1,000 children had lost at least one arm or leg. The agency hasn't been able to update the stat since because of the intensity of Israel's ongoing siege. Layan's destroyed legs were amputated without anesthesia. This happened just days after her best friend, Samaa, was killed in another air strike—Samaa was reduced to little more than her torso and hands. When a child loses a limb, time is of the essence. The sooner they get specialized care and rehabilitation, the better their chances of physically adjusting in the long term. But Layan couldn't get treatment in Gaza because its health infrastructure has been ravaged. In early 2024, Layan became one of just a handful of Palestinian children evacuated to the U.S. for medical care. She traveled more than 6,000 miles, alone, to Chicago, to live with strangers. They expected her to be sad. Instead, she was angry.
COMING TO AMERICA by award-winning journalist Rhana Natour, with images by Gazan photojournalist Eman Mohammed, is the story of Layan’s physical and emotional journey. It’s so good, and so terrible. It's also a mere snapshot of the carnage and trauma we're witnessing—a look at one chapter of one life forever changed by what by Israel is doing to Gaza. The bombs are still falling; there's no end in sight. What will happen to Layan and thousands of other children like her?
The story of Layan Albaz, one of thousands of Palestinian children who have lost limbs in Israeli air strikes—and one of the very few evacuated to the U.S. for medical care.
