“I knocked all doors to complete my treatment so that I could go on with my life in a proper way” with these words freed prisoner Usama Murad Zidat 15 began his speech with the PIC reporter.
Zidat is from the town of Bani Naim to the east of Hebron and despite his courage and honesty; his tone revealed pain and sadness because of the closure of all doors in his face after promises of traveling outside Palestine to complete his treatment went in vain.
Injury and arrest
“I was 14 years old when I came under fire by the Israeli army in Al-Baqa’a neighborhood east of Hebron. I was coming from the town of Bani Naim 4 km away” Zidat recounts. “Then the soldiers surrounded me from everywhere and fired bullets at me hitting my body with three bullets. Two bullets penetrated my right thigh while the third penetrated my chest.”
He told the PIC reporter “The 23rd of September in 2015 was a difficult day; the soldiers took me to an Israeli ambulance after being injured. Due to bleeding I lost consciousness. I stayed for 18 days in the Intensive Care Unit. After I left the ICU they took me to the Ramle prison hospital where I was detained for four months before I was released.”
Medical error
He added “Following questioning I realized that my knee and chest were damaged. This requires me to undergo a number of surgeries to fix my bonee skin and muscles. After my thigh operation I found out that the doctors had implanted platinum inside my thigh in a wrong way connecting it with a metal device outside the leg” he said. “This led to complications which required undergoing another surgery to place a circular metal device instead of the rectangle.”
Release and trial
The occupation authorities released Osama on a 25000 New Israeli Shekel bail until the completion of procedures at the court. Later he attended 12 court sessions and was released after paying the fine placing him under a three-month house arrest.
Zidat appealed to all organizations to help him complete his treatment so that he could return to walk on his feet pointing out that he spoke to the office of President Mahmoud Abbas that promised him to travel to Turkey to complete his treatment and received similar promises from the International Truth Foundation and the Turkish Red Crescent with a whole year passing without making any progress.
Promises and hope
Zidat stressed that his father works as a teacher and has a family to support and that he can’t cover the expenses of his treatment. Osama needs an expensive surgery to remove calcification which prevented him from bending his leg to walk normally.
He said he left the Bani Naim Secondary School when he was still a 10th grade student because he was unable to climb the third floor to attend his classes.
Osama did not lose hope that good people would help him travel to Turkey to undergo the surgery.
