[News] If not killed, scarred for life: 'Israel' targets Lebanon's children

[Anti-Imperialist News]

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If not killed, scarred for life: 'Israel' targets Lebanon's children
Al Mayadeen English
November 12, 2024
------------------------------

Many Lebanese children have suffered severed limbs, burns, and lost
families—trauma that may last a lifetime due to the ongoing brutal Israeli
aggression on Lebanon.
[image: 54219b1f-c72e-4b1d-bfc3-2c6fa3c2df17.jpeg]

   - Plastic surgeon doctor Ziad Sleiman inspects Ivana Skakye, 2, as she
   lies on a bed at the Geitaoui hospital where she is receiving treatment, in
   Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. (*AP*)

Curled up in his father’s lap, gripping his chest, 4-year-old Hussein
Mikdad sobbed uncontrollably. He kicked the doctor with his uninjured foot
and pushed him away with his arm that wasn’t in a cast. "My Dad! My Dad!"
Hussein cried. "Make him leave me alone!" His father, with eyes filled with
both relief and pain, reassured him and held him tighter.

Hussein and his father, Hassan, are the sole survivors of their family
following an Israeli airstrike on their Beirut neighborhood last month. The
brutal Israeli attack on a residential neighborhood killed at least 18
people, including Hussein's mother, three siblings, and six other
relatives. Israeli airstrikes have mainly targeted residential areas across
Lebanon, killing and wounding thousands.

"Can he now shower?" the father asked the doctor.

Ten days after surgery, doctors assessed Hussein’s injuries and confirmed
that he was healing well. He has metal rods in his broken right thigh and
stitches that have reattached the torn tendons in his right arm. The pain
has eased, and Hussein is expected to walk again in two months, though with
a permanent limp.
Hussein's struggle with invisible wounds after the attack

A prognosis for Hussein's emotional trauma is far more difficult to
determine. He has reverted to wearing diapers and has started wetting the
bed. He barely speaks and has not mentioned his mother, two sisters, or
brother.

“The trauma is not limited to just the physical injuries. He is also
suffering mentally,” said Imad Nahle, one of Hussein’s orthopedic surgeons.
Children are the main Israeli target

As airstrikes continue to hit homes and residential areas, doctors are
seeing an increasing number of children affected by the brutal Israeli
aggression. Over the past six weeks, more than 100 children have been
killed in Lebanon, and hundreds more injured. Of the 14,000 people wounded
since last year, about 10% are children. Many have suffered severed limbs,
burns, and lost families—trauma that may last a lifetime.

Ghassan Abu Sittah, a prominent British-Palestinian surgeon who is also
treating Hussein, sees a difficult future ahead. His concern is clear, "It
leaves us with a generation of physically wounded children, children who
are psychologically and emotionally wounded."
'What do they want from us?'

At the American University of Beirut Medical Center, which is handling a
limited number of war casualties, Nahle reported that he has performed
surgery on five children in the past five weeks—compared to none before.
Most of the cases have been referred from southern and eastern Lebanon.

A few miles away, at the Lebanese Hospital Geitaoui, one of the country’s
largest burn centers, its medical director Naji Abirached stated that the
facility has expanded its capacity by nearly 180% since September to
accommodate more war casualties. Around 20% of the newly admitted patients
are children.

In one of the burn center’s ICU units is Ivana Skakye, who celebrated her
second birthday in the hospital last week. Ivana is recovering from burns
she sustained in an Israeli airstrike near their home in southern Lebanon
on September 23.

Six weeks later, little Ivana is still covered in white gauze from head to
toe, with the exception of her torso. She suffered third-degree burns over
40% of her body, including her hair, head, left side, arms, and chest. The
ceiling of her family’s home was set on fire, and the valuables they had
packed in their car while preparing to flee were also destroyed. Ivana's
older sister, 7-year-old Rahaf, has recovered more quickly from burns on
her face and hands.

Their mother, Fatima Zayoun, was in the kitchen when the explosion
occurred. She rushed to grab her daughters, who were playing on the terrace.

Zayoun described the moment as feeling "as if something lifted me up so I
could grab my kids." She recalled, "I have no idea how I managed to pull
them in and throw them out of the window." Speaking from the ICU burns
unit, she continued, "They were not on fire, but they were burned. Black
ash covered them... (Ivana) was without any hair. I told myself, ‘That is
not her.’”

Ivana's wound dressings are now changed every two days. Her doctor, Ziad
Sleiman, mentioned that she could be discharged in a few days. She has
started saying "Mama" and "Bye" again, a sign that she wants to go outside.

However, like Hussein, Ivana has no home to go back to. Her parents are
worried that staying in collective shelters could cause her infection to
return.

After seeing her children "sizzling on the floor," Zayoun, 35, said that
even when their home is repaired, she wouldn't want to return. "I saw death
with my own eyes," she said.

Zayoun was 17 during the July 2006 war and asserted that this war is
different, saying, "But this war is hard. They are hitting everywhere," she
said. "What do they want from us? Do they want to hurt our children? We are
not what they are looking for."
How Israeli attacks on homes destroy children's sense of safety

Israeli attacks on homes can be especially difficult for children to cope
with. Abu Sittah, the reconstructive surgeon, explained that most
children's injuries result from blasts or falling rubble. Such an attack on
a place they expect to be safe can have long-lasting consequences.

"Children feel safe at home," he said. "The injury makes them lose that
sense of security for the first time—that their parents are keeping them
safe, that their homes are invincible, and suddenly their homes become not
so."
A generational trauma

Maria Elizabeth Haddad, manager of psychosocial support programs in Beirut
and surrounding areas for the US-based International Medical Corps, stated
that parents in shelters have reported increased anxiety, hostility, and
aggression in their children. The kids are defying their parents and
disregarding rules; some have developed speech difficulties and clinginess.
One child is even showing early signs of psychosis, according to the expert.

“There are going to be residual symptoms when they grow up, especially
related to attachment ties, to feeling of security,” Haddad said. “It is a
generational trauma. We have experienced it before with our parents. ...
They don’t have stability or search for (extra) stability. This is not
going to be easy to overcome.”

Children make up more than a third of the over 1 million people displaced
by the war in Lebanon. As a result, hundreds of thousands of children in
Lebanon are unable to attend school, either because their schools are
unreachable or have been converted into shelters.

Hussein's father believes that he and his son must rebuild their lives from
scratch. With help from relatives, the two have found temporary shelter in
a home, offering the father a brief moment of relief. "I thank God he is
not asking for or about his mother and his siblings," said Hassan Mikdad,
40.

He cannot explain what his son experienced, having witnessed the death of
their family in their own home. His two sisters, Celine, 10, and Cila, 14,
were recovered from the rubble the next day. His mother, Mona, was found
three days later, holding her 6-year-old son, Ali, in a final embrace.

The October 21 strike also damaged one of Beirut’s main public hospitals,
breaking solar panels and windows in the pharmacy and dialysis unit. Hassan
survived because he had stepped out for coffee. He watched his building
collapse in the late-night airstrike. In addition, he lost his shop,
motorcycles, and car — everything representing 16 years of family life.

His friend, Hussein Hammoud, rushed to the scene to help sift through the
debris. Hammoud noticed Hussein Mikdad’s fingers in the darkness behind
their home. At first, he thought they were severed limbs until he heard the
boy’s screams. He then dug him out, finding glass embedded in his leg and a
metal bar in his shoulder. Hammoud said he didn’t recognize the boy at
first but held Hussein’s nearly severed wrist in place.

Now in the hospital, Hussein Mikdad sipped on juice while listening to his
father and friend. His father turned to him and asked if he wanted a toy —
trying to prevent another outburst of tears. He added that he buys Hussein
a toy every day.

“What I am living through seems like a big lie. ...The mind can’t
comprehend,” he said. “I thank God for the blessing that is Hussein.”
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