Published: 14 September 2024
He gives us strength and inspiration, school psychologist, Hanin Al Salamat,
says about nine-year-old Youssef Ajjour
Agencies
Doha
Evacuated to Qatar from the chaos of Gaza, nine-year-old Palestinian Mahmoud Youssef Ajjour still dreams of becoming a pilot one day despite losing his arms in an Israeli rocket attack.
In a small apartment in Doha, Ajjour’s mother slowly eases him into his uniform to help him get ready for school. It will take some time to fit him with artificial limbs, Reuters reports.
The rocket hit as he was walking away from his Gaza home in December with his father and mother. “I was lying on the ground, I didn’t know what hit me, I didn’t know that I lost my arms” said Ajjour.
He was operated on in Gaza with limited anaesthetic, waking up from the operation in great pain and with his arms gone, his mother said, according to the report.
Yet he is one of the lucky ones, escaping the devastation, where many hospitals have been destroyed. Qatar has taken in some injured Gazans for treatment.
Ajjour longs for Gaza, which was vibrant before the conflict despite widespread poverty and high unemployment in what was one of the world’s most densely populated places.
His home was destroyed in the Israeli offensive triggered by an Oct 7 attack by Hamas.
“I want Gaza to be beautiful again,” Ajjour says.
At the long-established Palestinian School in Doha, he sits patiently while his classmates write things down and raises his voice alongside them as they answer a teacher’s questions.
The school psychologist, Hanin Al Salamat, sees in him a source of inspiration. “He gives us strength,” she says.
He refuses to let physical limitations define him.
“I will keep trying everything,” he says with conviction. “I will become a pilot, and I will play football with my friends.”
