Ahmed AlmallahiWashington, DC — With Israel's genocide collapsing Gaza's health system, a small cohort of gravely wounded Palestinian children have arrived in the United States for extended medical treatment, in what advocates say is the largest medical evacuation from the besieged enclave since Israel's war on Gaza began.
These children — many of whom have lost limbs, suffered severe burns, or endured life-threatening wounds from Israeli bombs, shells, and bullets — are being treated at hospitals across the US thanks to the humanitarian group HEAL Palestine and its executive director Steve Sosebee, a veteran advocate who has worked with wounded Palestinian children since the First Intifada (in 1987).
"We've never seen anything like this," Sosebee tells TRT World from Ohio. "Not even close. The scale of brutality, of injuries, of suffering — it's unprecedented in modern history."
Sosebee notes the current situation in besieged Gaza — where Israel has reportedly killed nearly 62,000 Palestinians, including more than 18,000 children, even as analysts say the actual death toll could be around 200,000 — surpasses anything he's witnessed in over 30 years of relief work, having evacuated wounded children since the early 1990s.
"Back then, we thought 15 people killed in a demonstration was horrific. Now that's one air strike," he explains.
A childhood scarred by genocide
Among the newly arrived evacuees to the US is Rahaf al-Dalou, a young girl from Gaza who survived a fire caused by an Israeli air strike near her family's tent outside the Shuhada Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah.
The Israeli strike ignited a blaze that swept through the tent camp sheltering displaced civilians. Her mother and older brother, Sha'ban al-Dalou, were burned alive instantly.
In a video that went viral, Sha'ban, 19, a software engineering student at Al-Azhar University and a hafiz of the Quran, was seen helplessly waving his arms, engulfed in flames, as survivors screamed and scrambled to douse the fire.
He had only recently begun his studies in September 2023 after being displaced the year before when Israeli military destroyed the family's home.
Just days before his murder, he had miraculously survived another Israeli air strike on a mosque that killed 20 people.
Rahaf's younger sister, critically burned in the hospital attack, succumbed to her wounds four days later in intensive care.
Rahaf sustained severe burns and shrapnel wounds.
"My fingers melted into each other. I couldn't move. I couldn't walk. There was no one to cook or care for me and my father," she tells TRT World from a hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, where she is receiving reconstructive surgery and trauma care.
Before being evacuated, she was cycled through overstretched facilities in Gaza, from the American hospital in Deir al Balah to Nasser Medical Complex.
Medications were unavailable. Equipment was broken.
"If we had better medicines in Gaza, I wouldn't have needed to leave," she says.
'Food is the weapon now'
Sosebee states that it is not only Israeli bombs and bullets maiming Gaza's children, but also the deliberate withholding of food and aid, which he describes as the most "unheard-of weapon" in modern warfare.
"Israel is using food as a weapon," he says. "They're [Israelis] starving children to force a population into submission. It's ethnic cleansing through hunger."
Humanitarian groups and the UN have echoed similar concerns over the Israel-induced starvation crisis.
A recent alert from the World Health Organization and the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) found that 495,000 people in Gaza — including 135,000 children — are now facing catastrophic levels of hunger, with famine-like conditions already emerging in the north.
The alert warns that malnutrition, dehydration, and preventable disease are becoming leading causes of death among Gaza's children.
Amidst the Israeli siege, over 100 Palestinian children have died from malnutrition, reports the UN agency for humanitarian aid, UNRWA.
More than 80 percent of Gaza's health facilities are non-functional, according to WHO, and most of the population is surviving on less than one meal a day.
"Even when we have food, shelter, or medicine available, the problem is getting it in," Sosebee says.
'There's nothing 'post' about this trauma'
According to Sosebee, Gaza's young survivors are not experiencing post-traumatic stress, but current traumatic stress — a continuous, unrelenting psychological crisis.
Consistent with UNRWA, 98 percent of Gaza's children exhibit psychological distress after 300 days of genocide, with all assessed reporting fear.
There has been a surge in self-harm, emotional withdrawal, and trauma-linked behaviours such as violent play and mutism.
"These are the most resilient kids you'll ever meet," Sosebee of HEAL Palestine says.
"But what they're carrying is beyond what any child should."
Rahaf agrees.
"I'm not here because I wanted to leave my home," she says.
"There's nothing like your own country. But in Gaza, there's no future. No treatment. No chance."
Her evacuation came after her aunt, whose own son was wounded by Israeli strikes, connected her with HEAL Palestine.
They crossed from Gaza via the Karem Abu Salem crossing, transited through Jordan, and eventually reached the US after two days.
A systemic betrayal
Amidst rising casualties, Sosebee is blunt in his criticism of the international community.
"No, the world hasn't done enough," he says.
"It has allowed children to starve to death in 2025. This isn't just negligence — it's complicity. Governments are still sending weapons and money to the Israeli regime while turning away from the consequences."
He describes watching wounded children suffer with no prosthetics, no pain relief, no trauma therapy.
"It's beyond politics now," he says.
"It's about basic humanity."
Though Rahaf misses her home, she says she wants to remain in the US until she finishes her treatment — and beyond.
"Even when the war ends, there's no future in Gaza," she says.
"Here, at least, I can try to build something."
Still, she carries Gaza with her.
"I want the world to know what's happening to children there," she says.
"Just a little more food, some fruit or vegetables, could save lives. We're not asking for much."
Sosebee and Rahaf view the evacuation as a rare beacon of hope amidst adversity.
"We're not just flying children out for care," Sosebee says. "We’re showing them — and the world — that their lives still matter."
For now, HEAL Palestine is trying to expand its medical missions and secure more evacuations.
But the clock is ticking.
With Israel flattening everything in Gaza, many Palestinian children may not survive the wait.
