Three-year-old Amr al-Hams lies immobile in his southern Gaza hospital bed with shrapnel embedded in his brain from an Israeli air strike.
Unable to walk or speak, his eyes dart around, searching for his mother, his aunt Nour believes.
Amr’s mother, Inas, was nine months pregnant when she took the family to visit her parents in northern Gaza. That night, their tent was struck. The attack killed his mother, her unborn baby, two of Amr’s siblings and his grandfather.
Amr survived after being rushed to intensive care with a breathing tube. His grief-stricken father is nearly speechless.
Now at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Amr has left intensive care but suffers from severe malnutrition. The fortified milk he requires vanished during Israel’s months-long blockade.
Nour feeds him mashed lentils through a syringe. She sleeps beside him, changes his nappies and comforts him during seizures.
“I tell him his mother will be back soon,” she says. “Other times, I give him a toy. But he cries. I think he misses her.”
Doctors say Amr needs immediate evacuation from the conflict zone. Without specialised care and therapy, his brain injuries will likely cause permanent damage.
“His brain is still developing,” Nour says. “Will he walk again? Speak again? So long as he is in Gaza, there is no recovery.”