ABU DHABI: Layan Al Nasr, 14, thought she would never walk again after both of her legs were amputated following an Israeli bombing in Gaza one year ago.

Now, she stands proudly on artificial limbs fitted in the UAE. But fear for her family, still living under the attacks, gnaws away.

“When I was told about prosthetics when I arrived, I didn’t even know they existed,” she jokes, taking a few steps supported by crutches.

She is able to smile as she describes her operations, rehabilitation and her newfound hope. But emotion eventually catches up with her.

“What scares me today is losing my brothers, my sisters and my father,” she confides, bursting into tears.

Nasr is one of more than 2,000 wounded or seriously ill Palestinians flown with their closest relatives to the UAE during the Israel-Hamas war.

Plucked from shattered Gaza, much of it in ruins, they are lucky to escape a conflict that has left more than 45,000 people dead in the Palestinian territory.

The survivors brought to the UAE are haunted by their memories of war and their terror of losing loved ones, despite their new existence in calm, quiet Abu Dhabi.

“I don’t care what happens to me, the important thing is that nothing happens to them,” insists Nasr.

The complex housing them in the UAE capital has a school, mosque, grocery store and a hairdresser, as well as a care center offering physiotherapy, speech therapy and counseling.

“Thanks to the prosthetics and the care provided, patients have regained their autonomy,” says physiotherapist Mustafa Ahmed Naji Awad.

But the hardest thing to treat is the psychological impact, he admits.

Faten Abu Khoussa, who came with her 10-year-old daughter Qamar, can testify to this.

The little girl was caught in an air raid in Gaza when she went out to buy a packet of crisps, losing a leg from her injuries.

Qamar’s spirits have gradually improved over time, but “it remains very difficult for her. She loved nothing more than playing on her scooter,” says her mother.

“She feels alone without her brothers and sisters” who have fled to Egypt, Abu Khoussa adds.

The single mother, now separated from the other children she has been raising since her husband’s death, is desperately trying to reunite her family in the UAE.

Until then she feels her life is “suspended,” leaving her unable to plan for the future.

The Emirati authorities say the afflicted Palestinians and their family members will be asked to return home when conditions allow.

Ahmad Mazen, 15, who came with his mother to have a lower-leg prosthesis fitted, was looking forward to being reunited with his father and brother.

But shortly after his arrival, he learned that they had been killed in a bombing raid.

His only consolation is football, his passion, and the “indescribable feeling” of finally being able to kick a ball again, he says.

DAMASCUS: A silent crowd gathered in the Syrian capital Damascus to press the new authorities about the fate of relatives who went missing under Bashar Assad and to demand justice for their loved ones.

The fate of tens of thousands of people who disappeared under Assad — who was ousted on Dec. 8 by a coalition of rebels — is a key question after more than 13 years of devastating civil war that saw upwards of half a million people killed.

Dozens of somber protesters holding pictures of the disappeared assembled in central Damascus’s Hijaz Square, a journalist said.

“It is time for tyrants to be held accountable,” read a black banner unfurled from the balcony of the elegant Ottoman-era train station.

Other placards read: “Revealing the fate of the missing is a right,” and “I don’t want an unmarked grave for my son, I want the truth.”

Such a demonstration would have been unthinkable under Assad’s rule, but it is now possible under the new authorities dominated by the radical group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, which led the offensive that overthrew him.

“Unfortunately for many years we were united in the grief of absence and uncertainty, waiting for our loved ones, one amnesty after another,” said Wafa Mustafa in a speech in the midst of the protesters.

Her father Ali was arrested in 2013.

“We all saw the scenes of prisoners being freed. It was a source of joy, but it was also very difficult because we did not see our own loved ones among them,” she said.

“We are here to say we will not accept anything less than the whole truth, to know what happened to our relatives, who tortured them, and if they were buried, where they are,” she added.

Amani Al-Hallaq, 28, was seeking news about where to find the remains of her cousin, who was kidnapped in 2012 when he was a student dentist.

“I was once one of those who was afraid. This is the first time I am protesting,” the 28-year-old Amani said.

Her cousin was abducted as he came out of the university, said the young woman in a headscarf.

“They pulled out his nails. He died instantly,” she said.

“We want to know where the disappeared are, their bodies, so we can identify them.”