GAZA, (PIC)
Despite several weeks passing since she was injured in an attack by Israeli army dogs, Palestinian Um Hassan still suffers from physical and psychological pain due to her ordeal.
Um Hassan, who has three children, lives in Khan Yunis, and her home was damaged by artillery shelling, rendering it uninhabitable.
She recalls the details of her tragedy that took place on October 24, 2024 when the Israeli occupation forces launched a sudden attack on her neighborhood in the Al-Manara area of Khan Yunis.
She says, “Incredibly and indescribably, we began to hear the sounds of tank tracks and quadcopter drones completely surrounding the Al-Manara neighborhood, filled with families in their homes.”
On that day, the occupation forces started shelling homes, including a house belonging to the Al-Fara family next to Um Hassan’s, where 13 people were killed, most of them children.
She recounts, “The occupation army shelled the second floor of our house with artillery while about 20 of us were on the ground floor with my children, husband, my brothers, and my in-laws.”
She adds, “We were trapped in the house, and due to the continuous artillery shelling, we all hid in the bathroom and stayed there until 10 PM. Suddenly, the occupation forces brought in a dog equipped with a camera to search the house. It stood in front of us, approached us, and then bit my younger sister (17 years old), who was married and also pregnant.”
With sorrow and bitterness, she remembers what happened that day, “The dog attacked me and bit my thigh, causing severe injuries and leading to heavy bleeding, noting that I was also in my ninth month of pregnancy.”
Um Hassan’s husband kicked the dog hard, and her in-laws tried to fend it off with sticks, but it never let go, amidst the screams of her small children who were terrified.
She continues, “After that, the dog dragged me from the bathroom about 15 meters and tightened its grip on my foot, at which point I felt that the flesh of my foot had completely torn away, and my foot began to bleed profusely all over the house. The dog kept its grip on my foot for nearly 10 minutes, and no one could pry its jaw off.”
She adds, “This continued until we heard the sound of soldiers’ boots on the stairs, and then they entered in large numbers. Three of them came to try to pry the dog’s jaw off my foot. They couldn’t do it until a fourth soldier, who was in charge, came and forcefully removed the dog’s grip.”
At that point, Um Hassan saw her leg, and the wound was deep, with an 8-centimeter deep and 12-centimeter long gash in her thigh, as the doctors later informed her. She says, “The sight of my leg was terrifying; I felt as if it would be amputated due to the severity of the wound. It seemed to me that the dog was chewing the flesh from my thigh, and the ground was horrifically covered in blood. I was screaming in pain at the top of my lungs, and at the same time, I felt I might lose my baby due to the severe bleeding I was experiencing.”
After that, the soldiers occupied the house completely, climbed onto its roof in large numbers, and began firing randomly in all directions, in addition to the continuous shelling that lasted from the moment they invaded until they left, which lasted about seven hours. Um Hassan notes that there was a complete siege of the area, saying, “We had no idea about the fate of the neighboring families, whether they were alive or dead.”
She said that the occupation soldiers called the men from inside and outside the house and isolated them in one room, “while the women and my children were placed in another room.” The children were in a state of great shock from the events, continuously screaming and crying. She added, “I was screaming from pain and bleeding, and I started to lose consciousness little by little. The officer came back and told me that if I talked about what happened and told people that the soldiers were the ones who released the dog on me, they would come and torture me, and they would kill all my children and my entire family. He threatened me that he would reach me wherever I was, and I believed they would kill me.”
At 2:30 AM, after their threats, the occupation forces withdrew from the house. They arrested Um Hassan’s husband along with a young man from the Al-Fara family and left under the incessant shelling. The children began to cry and scream in fear for their father, and they were in a state of extreme terror. Their mother remained unaware of her husband’s fate until 7 AM, when they began to hear the sounds of ambulances. At that point, they learned that the army had withdrawn from the neighborhood, and her family went out to bring an ambulance to take her to Nasser Hospital.
She says, “As I was leaving, I was shocked by the large number of martyrs—children, women, and elderly—lying on the ground, while neighbors began to retrieve their martyrs, with about 35 martyrs from the Abu Abidin, Awida, and Al-Fara families.”
In the hospital, the doctors were shocked by the severity of the wound and its danger, Um Hassan says, noting that she was suffering from severe pain due to her pregnancy. She added, “After examining me, they told me I had high blood pressure and that I was in a state of preeclampsia due to the severe bleeding and the dog’s bite on my thigh. The doctors said the wound was very deep and needed urgent surgery, or I would lose my leg. Initially, they were unable to treat the wound properly due to a lack of resources in the hospital because of the siege imposed by the Israeli army on Gaza, as they lacked necessary medical supplies like antiseptics, gauze, and sterilizers. They transferred me to Mubarak Hospital on October 28, 2024, where the doctors decided to perform an emergency cesarean due to the preeclampsia I was experiencing.”
She continued, “I entered the operating room at 9 AM and waited for the doctor until 6:30 PM, while the place was not clean at all and there was no suitable bed for delivery. Afterward, I had the cesarean operation, but unfortunately, I lost the fetus due to the preeclampsia and bleeding. Three hours after the cesarean, the doctors told me that I needed urgent surgery for the wound in my leg, which required immediate intervention. Due to the lack of resources in the hospital, the surgery was performed in the same operating room where I delivered, which was very difficult due to the lack of equipment and resources.”
An hour after the operation, Um Hassan was transferred to the intensive care unit at Nasser Hospital, where she stayed for a week until her condition improved. On November 4, 2024, the occupation released her husband after ten days of detention and informed them that he had been transferred to the border area with Egypt in Rafah for interrogation.
She says, “Despite feeling physically safe, I still suffer from very difficult psychological conditions, often experiencing hysterical episodes due to the threats I received from the officer and the physical pain I endured. I cannot forget the terror I lived through and what my children faced, especially my daughter Sham, who still suffers from severe fear and involuntary urination due to the psychological trauma she experienced. As for my health, I am still unable to walk or move normally, and I need to change the dressings twice daily to prevent the wound from getting infected.”
Her husband’s arrest was not the first during this war; on November 13, 2023, Um Hassan says that the Israeli occupation army arrested her husband along with a group of workers in Qalqilya, transferring him to “Anatot” prison, but he was released and returned to them safely after five days through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Um Hassan had previously suffered from repeated displacement from her home in Khan Yunis to Rafah and Mawasi Khan Yunis, where they lived through hunger, cold, and the heat of tents before returning home to find themselves facing new suffering.
