JERUSALEM: Patients lying shackled and blindfolded on more than a dozen beds inside a white tent in the desert. Surgeries performed without adequate painkillers. Doctors who remain anonymous.
These are some of the conditions at Israel’s only hospital dedicated to treating Palestinians detained by the military in the Gaza Strip, three people who have worked there told The Associated Press, confirming similar accounts from human rights groups.
While Israel says it detains only suspected militants, many patients have turned out to be non-combatants taken during raids, held without trial and eventually returned to war-torn Gaza.
Eight months into the Israel-Hamas war, accusations of inhumane treatment at the Sde Teiman military field hospital are on the rise, and the Israeli government is under growing pressure to shut it down. Rights groups and other critics say what began as a temporary place to hold and treat militants after Oct. 7 has morphed into a harsh detention center with too little accountability.
The military denies the allegations of inhumane treatment and says all detainees needing medical attention receive it.
The hospital is near the city of Beersheba in southern Israel. Of the three workers interviewed by AP, two spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared government retribution and public rebuke.
“We are condemned by the left because we are not fulfilling ethical issues,” said Dr. Yoel Donchin, an anesthesiologist who has worked at Sde Teiman hospital since its earliest days and still works there. “We are condemned from the right because they think we are criminals for treating terrorists.”
The military this week said it formed a committee to investigate detention center conditions, but it was unclear if that included the hospital. Next week Israel’s highest court is set to hear arguments from human rights groups seeking to shut it down.
Israel has not granted journalists or the International Committee of the Red Cross access to the Sde Teiman facilities.
Israel has detained some 4,000 Palestinians since Oct. 7, according to official figures, though roughly 1,500 were released after the military determined they were not affiliated with Hamas. Israeli human rights groups say the majority of detainees have at some point passed through Sde Teiman, the country’s largest detention center.
Doctors there say they have treated many who appeared to be non-combatants.
“Now we have patients that are not so young, sick patients with diabetes and high blood pressure,” said Donchin, the anesthesiologist.
A soldier who worked at the hospital recounted an elderly man who underwent surgery on his leg without pain medication. “He was screaming and shaking,” said the soldier.
Between medical treatments, the soldier said patients were housed in the detention center, where they were exposed to squalid conditions and their wounds often developed infections. There was a separate area where older people slept on thin mattresses under floodlights, and a putrid smell hung in the air, he said.
The military said in a statement that all detainees are “reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activity.” It said they receive check-ups upon arrival and are transferred to the hospital when they require more serious treatment.
A medical worker who saw patients at the facility in the winter recounted teaching hospital workers how to wash wounds.
Donchin, who largely defended the facility against allegations of mistreatment but was critical of some of its practices, said most patients are diapered and not allowed to use the bathroom, shackled around their arms and legs and blindfolded.
“Their eyes are covered all the time. I don’t know what the security reason for this is,” he said.
The military disputed the accounts provided to AP, saying patients were handcuffed “in cases where the security risk requires it” and removed when they caused injury. Patients are rarely diapered, it said.
Dr. Michael Barilan, a professor at the Tel Aviv University Medical School who said he has spoken with over 15 hospital staff, disputed accounts of medical negligence. He said doctors are doing their best under difficult circumstances, and that the blindfolds originated out of a “fear (patients) would retaliate against those taking care of them.”
Days after Oct. 7, roughly 100 Israelis clashed with police outside one of the country’s main hospitals in response to false rumors it was treating a militant.
In the aftermath, some hospitals refused to treat detainees, fearful that doing so could endanger staff and disrupt operations.
As Israel pulled in scores of wounded Palestinians to Sde Teiman, it became clear the facility’s infirmary was not large enough, according to Barilan. An adjacent field hospital was built from scratch.
Israel’s Health Ministry laid out plans for the hospital in a December memo obtained by AP.
It said patients would be treated while handcuffed and blindfolded. Doctors, drafted into service by the military, would be kept anonymous to protect their “safety, lives and well-being.” The ministry referred all questions to the military when reached for comment.
Still, an April report from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, drawing on interviews with hospital workers, said doctors at the facility faced “ethical, professional and even emotional distress.” Barilan said turnover has been high.
Patients with more complicated injuries have been transferred from the field hospital to civilian hospitals, but it has been done covertly to avoid arousing the public’s attention, Barilan said. And the process is fraught: The medical worker who spoke with AP said one detainee with a gunshot wound was discharged prematurely from a civilian hospital to Sde Teiman within hours of being treated, endangering his life.
The field hospital is overseen by military and health officials, but Donchin said parts of its operations are managed by KLP, a private logistics and security company whose website says it specializes in “high-risk environments.” The company did not respond to a request for comment.
Because it’s not under the same command as the military’s medical corps, the field hospital is not subject to Israel’s Patients Rights Act, according to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.
A group from the Israeli Medical Association visited the hospital earlier this year but kept its findings private. The association did not respond to requests for comment.
The military told AP that 36 people from Gaza have died in Israel’s detention centers since Oct. 7, some of them because of illnesses or wounds sustained in the war. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel has alleged that some died from medical negligence.
Khaled Hammouda, a surgeon from Gaza, spent 22 days at one of Israel’s detention centers. He does not know where he was taken because he was blindfolded while he was transported. But he said he recognized a picture of Sde Teiman and said he saw at least one detainee, a prominent Gaza doctor who is believed to have been there.
Hammouda recalled asking a soldier if a pale 18-year-old who appeared to be suffering from internal bleeding could be taken to a doctor. The soldier took the teenager away, gave him intravenous fluids for a few hours, and then returned him.
“I told them, ‘He could die,’” Hammouda said. “‘They told me this is the limit.’”
Israel maintains a shadowy hospital in the desert for Gaza detainees. Critics allege mistreatment
https://arab.news/jgsgh
Israel maintains a shadowy hospital in the desert for Gaza detainees. Critics allege mistreatment
- The military denies the allegations of inhumane treatment and says all detainees needing medical attention receive it
- While Israel says it detains only suspected militants, many patients have turned out to be non-combatants taken during raids, held without trial
A look at how settlements have grown in the West Bank over the years
JERUSALEM: Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in over three decades and advanced plans to build thousands of new settlement homes, according to Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement monitoring group. They are the latest steps by Israel’s hard-line government meant to cement Israel’s control over the territory and prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
This map shows the expansion of settlements and outposts from 1967 until now.
Half a century of settlements
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians seek all three areas for their future state. In 56 years, Israel has built well over 100 settlements scattered across the West Bank. Settlers also have built scores of tiny unauthorized outposts that are tolerated or even encouraged by the government. Some are later legalized.
Dwindling two-state prospects
The international community considers the settlements illegal or illegitimate, and the Palestinians say they are the main barrier to a lasting peace agreement.
But with more than 500,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank, it will be difficult – some say impossible – to partition the territory as part of a two-state solution.
Israeli team led by spy chief Barnea meets Qatari mediators on Gaza deal
- US believes Israel and Hamas have a “pretty significant opening” to reach an agreement
- No public statement was issued after the talks
JERUSALEM: Israel’s spy chief held talks with Qatari mediators on Friday in the latest effort for a truce and hostage release deal for Gaza, almost nine months into the Israel-Hamas war.
A source with knowledge of the negotiations said Mossad chief David Barnea and his delegation had left Doha straight after the meetings on the latest Hamas ideas for an agreement.
No public statement was issued after the talks.
The US, which has worked alongside Qatar and Egypt in trying to broker a deal, had talked up the significance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to send a delegation to Qatar.
The US believes Israel and Hamas have a “pretty significant opening” to reach an agreement, a senior official said.
The Gaza war — which has raised fears of a broader conflagration involving Lebanon — began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The militants also seized hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 the military says are dead.
In response, Israel has carried out a military offensive that has killed at least 38,011 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.
US President Joe Biden announced a pathway to a truce deal in May that he said had been proposed by Israel. It included an initial six-week truce, Israeli withdrawal from Gaza population centers and the freeing of hostages by Palestinian militants.
Talks subsequently stalled but the US official said on Thursday that the new proposal from Hamas “moves the process forward and may provide the basis for closing the deal,” though “significant work” remained.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP that the group expected a swift Israeli response — “likely today or tomorrow morning” — to its new “ideas.”
He blamed Israel for the deadlock since Biden’s announcement.
Hamdan said the ideas had been “conveyed by the mediators to the American side, which welcomed them and passed them on to the Israeli side. Now the ball is in the Israeli court.”
Hamdan said the Doha talks “will be a test for the US administration to see if it is willing to pressure the Zionist entity to accept these proposed ideas.”
There has been no truce in the war since a one-week pause in November saw 80 Israeli hostages freed in return for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
The war has uprooted 90 percent of Gaza’s population, destroyed much of the territory’s housing and other infrastructure, and left almost 500,000 people enduring “catastrophic” hunger, UN agencies say.
The main stumbling block to a truce deal has been Hamas’s demand for a permanent end to the fighting, which Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners strongly reject.
The Israeli leader has faced a well-organized protest movement demanding a deal to free the hostages, which took to the streets again on Thursday evening.
Netanyahu insists the war will not end until Israel destroys Hamas and the hostages are freed.
The head of the World Health Organization warned that “further disruption to health services is imminent in Gaza due to a severe lack of fuel.”
Only 90,000 liters (20,000 gallons) of fuel entered Gaza on Wednesday, but the health sector alone needs 80,000 liters each day.
The WHO and its partners in Gaza were having “to make impossible choices” as a result, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have voiced hope that a ceasefire in Gaza could lead to an easing of violence on the Israel-Lebanon border as well.
Since the war began, Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement has exchanged near-daily cross-border fire with the Israeli army in support of its Palestinian ally.
The exchanges have intensified over the past month after Israel killed senior Hezbollah commanders in targeted air strikes.
Hezbollah said it fired more than 200 rockets and “explosive drones” at army positions in northern Israel and the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights in its latest round of reprisals on Thursday.
A military source said the rocket fire killed a soldier in northern Israel.
Hamas said Friday that its foreign relations chief Khalil Al-Hayya had met Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah to coordinate their “resistance efforts” and the upcoming truce negotiations.
Hamas delegation holds talks in Beirut with Hezbollah
- Naim Qassem: ‘Prospects of war expansion are unlikely, but Hezbollah is prepared for worst possibilities’
- Nasrallah received Hamas deputy chief Hayya for the meeting, which reviewed “the latest security and political developments” in the Gaza Strip
BEIRUT: Hezbollah and Hamas leaders discussed the latest developments in ceasefire negotiations with Israel at a meeting in Beirut on Friday
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary-general, received a Hamas delegation headed by Khalil Al-Hayya, and both sides discussed “the developments of the ongoing negotiations and the proposals aiming to stop the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.”
A statement issued by Hezbollah and Hamas affirmed that both parties “emphasized continued field and political coordination at all levels to achieve the desired goals.”
The Hamas delegation also met with the leaders of the Islamic Group in Lebanon, which is an ally of Hezbollah.
The group said the discussion focused on “indirect negotiations and the implications of these developments for Palestine, Lebanon, and the region.”
The talks also tackled ways to face the “challenges of the next phase, emphasizing the importance of cooperation and the mobilization of the nation’s capabilities in this pivotal battle,” the statement added.
The talks came as Israel continued its raids on Lebanese border villages, with a drone raiding Markaba, injuring a paramedic next to an aid station for the Islamic Risala Scout.
Israeli media outlets said that five missiles were launched from Lebanon toward western Galilee without triggering local sirens.
Talks took place in Paris on Friday as part of efforts to de-escalate the situation along the Israeli-Lebanese border.
A White House official said Amos Hochstein, a senior US official at the heart of the discussions, spoke about efforts to restore calm in meetings with French officials.
Reuters quoted a White House source as saying that France and the US shared the goal of diplomatically resolving the current conflict.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan expressed the Kingdom’s “concern over the risk of the war expanding in Lebanon.”
In a statement, he said: “We do not see any political horizon,” noting that “a ceasefire in Gaza could help stop the tension in southern Lebanon.”
Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem commented on the diplomatic efforts to Russian Sputnik Radio.
Qassem said foreign delegates, including from the US and French, wanted to separate the Lebanese front from the war in Gaza, and are trying to appease Israel to allow Jewish settlers to return to their homes.
“There’s no discussion without a ceasefire, which will then be followed by the necessary political discussion and a review of the latest developments,” he warned.
Qassem said that “the chances of an expanded war are not likely soon, but Hezbollah is prepared for the worst possibilities.”
Qassem said Israel’s “only option is to accept Hamas’ conditions because it won’t stop its resistance as long as the aggression and the targeting of civilians continue.”
He also wondered “whether the Israeli Army can tolerate (Hezbollah’s) attrition operations.”
Qassem said the party had not built its military position based on political analysis but on information and field results.
He said: “Reaching an agreement is the strongest option today, especially amid the upheaval inside Israel, in addition to the Israeli opposition and its ability to pressure (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu).”
He added that he expected Hamas to play a major role in Palestine after the war ended, contrary to Israeli aims.
This came as the UN said the number of civilian casualties in Lebanon reached 98 as of June 28, including 31 women, 12 children, 21 health workers and three journalists.
A renewed report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs or OCHA said that “IDPs and host communities were experiencing “escalating fatigue, heightening the risk of intra-Lebanese tensions.”
It said internally displaced people were grappling with extended displacement and uncertain living conditions, while host communities were beginning to feel the pressure on local resources and, in some instances, competition for jobs.
According to the International Organization for Migration, around 96,829 people from border towns have been displaced mostly to relatives’ homes, while 16 shelters are housing around 1,498 displaced people.
The Ministry of Agriculture observed that more than 1,240 hectares of land had been destroyed, while around 72 percent of farmers had lost their sources of income in the south, with 340,000 livestock and a significant number of beehives destroyed as a result of Israeli bombing.
The National Council for Scientific Research documented “more than 175 Israeli attacks with phosphorus bombs and more than 196 attacks with incendiary bombs.”
It said that 10 water facilities had been destroyed, and more than 100,000 residents had been affected by water shortage.
The clashes have caused the closure of around six healthcare centers in Marjayoun and Bint Jbeil and the partial or complete closure of 72 private and public schools in the affected towns.
BEIRUT: Hezbollah and Hamas leaders discussed the latest developments in ceasefire negotiations with Israel at a meeting in Beirut on Friday
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary-general, received a Hamas delegation headed by Khalil Al-Hayya, and both sides discussed “the developments of the ongoing negotiations and the proposals aiming to stop the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.”
A statement issued by Hezbollah and Hamas affirmed that both parties “emphasized continued field and political coordination at all levels to achieve the desired goals.”
The Hamas delegation also met with the leaders of the Islamic Group in Lebanon, which is an ally of Hezbollah.
The group said the discussion focused on “indirect negotiations and the implications of these developments for Palestine, Lebanon, and the region.”
The talks also tackled ways to face the “challenges of the next phase, emphasizing the importance of cooperation and the mobilization of the nation’s capabilities in this pivotal battle,” the statement added.
The talks came as Israel continued its raids on Lebanese border villages, with a drone raiding Markaba, injuring a paramedic next to an aid station for the Islamic Risala Scout.
Israeli media outlets said that five missiles were launched from Lebanon toward western Galilee without triggering local sirens.
Talks took place in Paris on Friday as part of efforts to de-escalate the situation along the Israeli-Lebanese border.
A White House official said Amos Hochstein, a senior US official at the heart of the discussions, spoke about efforts to restore calm in meetings with French officials.
Reuters quoted a White House source as saying that France and the US shared the goal of diplomatically resolving the current conflict.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan expressed the Kingdom’s “concern over the risk of the war expanding in Lebanon.”
In a statement, he said: “We do not see any political horizon,” noting that “a ceasefire in Gaza could help stop the tension in southern Lebanon.”
Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem commented on the diplomatic efforts to Russian Sputnik Radio.
Qassem said foreign delegates, including from the US and French, wanted to separate the Lebanese front from the war in Gaza, and are trying to appease Israel to allow Jewish settlers to return to their homes.
“There’s no discussion without a ceasefire, which will then be followed by the necessary political discussion and a review of the latest developments,” he warned.
Qassem said that “the chances of an expanded war are not likely soon, but Hezbollah is prepared for the worst possibilities.”
Qassem said Israel’s “only option is to accept Hamas’ conditions because it won’t stop its resistance as long as the aggression and the targeting of civilians continue.”
He also wondered “whether the Israeli Army can tolerate (Hezbollah’s) attrition operations.”
Qassem said the party had not built its military position based on political analysis but on information and field results.
He said: “Reaching an agreement is the strongest option today, especially amid the upheaval inside Israel, in addition to the Israeli opposition and its ability to pressure (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu).”
He added that he expected Hamas to play a major role in Palestine after the war ended, contrary to Israeli aims.
This came as the UN said the number of civilian casualties in Lebanon reached 98 as of June 28, including 31 women, 12 children, 21 health workers and three journalists.
A renewed report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs or OCHA said that “IDPs and host communities were experiencing “escalating fatigue, heightening the risk of intra-Lebanese tensions.”
It said internally displaced people were grappling with extended displacement and uncertain living conditions, while host communities were beginning to feel the pressure on local resources and, in some instances, competition for jobs.
According to the International Organization for Migration, around 96,829 people from border towns have been displaced mostly to relatives’ homes, while 16 shelters are housing around 1,498 displaced people.
The Ministry of Agriculture observed that more than 1,240 hectares of land had been destroyed, while around 72 percent of farmers had lost their sources of income in the south, with 340,000 livestock and a significant number of beehives destroyed as a result of Israeli bombing.
The National Council for Scientific Research documented “more than 175 Israeli attacks with phosphorus bombs and more than 196 attacks with incendiary bombs.”
It said that 10 water facilities had been destroyed, and more than 100,000 residents had been affected by water shortage.
The clashes have caused the closure of around six healthcare centers in Marjayoun and Bint Jbeil and the partial or complete closure of 72 private and public schools in the affected towns.
Close adviser of Syrian president dies after car crash: Presidency
- Shibl was involved in incident on Yaa’four Road in Damascus
DAMASCUS: Luna Shibl, an adviser to Syrian president Bashar Assad, died on Friday three days after she was involved in a car accident, the office of the president said.
“The presidency of the Syrian Arab Republic mourns the death of the adviser Luna Al-Shibl, who passed away today after a serious car accident,” it said in a statement.
“She served in recent years as a director of the political and media office of the presidency and then as a special adviser to the presidency,” it added.
State media reported on Tuesday that Shibl was involved in a traffic accident on Yaa’four Road in Damascus, suffering a “cerebral haemorrhage” after her car “veered off the road,” after which she was taken to a clinic near the crash site and then transferred to intensive care in Al-Shami Hospital in the Syrian capital.
The 48-year-old rose to prominence for quitting a prestigious journalism career at Qatar-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera to become Assad’s media adviser.
She carved out a place within Assad’s inner circle as she accompanied him to high-level meetings in Syria and on his rare visits abroad and played an important role during the most intense years of the Syrian civil war. She was part of the delegation to ultimately doomed peace talks in 2014.
Britain-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported earlier this week that she had fallen out of official favor in recent months and her brother had been arrested.
“There was growing dissatisfaction with her within the regime,” said Observatory director Rami Abdulrahman.
“Accusations surfaced that she leaked minutes of closed meetings between Assad and Iranian officials,” Abdulrahman added.
Syrian intelligence arrested her brother “on charges of communicating with a party hostile to Syria” after Israel struck the Iranian consulate in Damascus in April, the monitor said.
In 2020, Washington sanctioned Shibl and her husband Ammar Saati, with the US Treasury saying at the time that “she has been instrumental in developing Assad’s false narrative that he maintains control of the country and that the Syrian people flourish under his leadership.”
* With AFP
Psychological wounds hard to heal for Gaza war victims
- Child amputees and elderly people in wheelchairs are among the patients on the converted ship off Al-Arish funded and operated by the UAE
- If that only scratches the surface of the needs of Gaza, it reflects the difficulty of providing aid for the sealed and bombarded territory
AL-ARISH, Egypt: On a floating hospital near Gaza, doctors aren’t just treating physical wounds — they’re providing emotional support too for children and adults haunted by months of terrifying war.
Child amputees and elderly people in wheelchairs are among the patients on the converted ship off Arish, northern Egypt, funded and operated by the United Arab Emirates.
About 2,400 people have been treated at the temporary facility, whose rows of tents below deck hold about 100 patients at a time, says deputy medical director Abdullah Al-Zahmi.
If that only scratches the surface of the needs of Gaza, it reflects the difficulty of providing aid for the sealed and bombarded territory.
More than 38,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war broke out nearly nine months ago, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Nine-year-old Yazan is one of those traumatized by the war, after being brought to the hospital about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Gaza without his parents and having a leg amputated because of his wounds.
Zahmi jokes with the boy, asks how his parents are doing in Gaza and assures him he will soon have a prosthetic leg fitted.
“The traditional relationship between the patient and the doctor” has dissolved, the doctor tells AFP.
“Every day we see each other, we speak comfortably, and we care about their needs, problems, and psychological pain.”
Yazan’s parents were not allowed to accompany him through the Rafah crossing into Egypt, Zahmi says, without giving further details. The route was closed by Israeli forces in early May.
The boy’s condition “was initially a concern for us, as dealing with him was difficult because he was emotional and in need of his mother and father.”
“But as days passed, we began to include Yazan as one of our family... and now he has become an icon for us because of his clinging to life, his constant smile, and everyone’s love for him,” Zahmi says.
The child is undergoing psychological and social rehabilitation and communicates daily with his family, Zahmi adds.
Smiling as he sits inside one of the tents, Yazan shows the doctor a picture of him with his father before the outbreak of war last October.
After his artificial leg is fitted, Yazan says he wants to “walk and play football,” adding that his “favorite player is (Cristiano) Ronaldo.”
“I would like to return to Gaza and live with my father and mother,” he says.
Zahmi says more than 840 operations have been carried out at the hospital, which has a surgical department, an intensive care and anaesthesia unit, X-ray facilities, a pharmacy and laboratory.
Its 60 staff span specialities including orthopaedics, internal care, neurosurgery and dentistry.
The hospital also provides communal spaces and communications with relatives in Gaza or elsewhere, Zahmi says.
“We provide them with high-speed Internet, outdoor areas for playing and resting, and a place for prayer,” he says.
In the main loading area of the 200-meter ship, ambulances are preparing to transfer patients to a plane to the UAE, where they will receive further treatment.
According to Zahmi, they are among those chosen as part of a UAE initiative to receive 1,000 wounded children and 1,000 cancer-sufferers from the Gaza Strip.
Other patients discharged from the hospital are taken to housing designated for them by Egyptian authorities.
For any patients who need further treatment but who are not being flown to the UAE, the Emirates Red Crescent will cover their costs at an Egyptian hospital.
Fadia Al-Madhun, 44, is on the floating hospital with her husband, who was injured in a bombing that targeted their Gaza home.
“We left the house. It was bombed. We did not take clothes or anything else,” says Madhun, wearing a floral hijab.
“They gave us everything (including) psychological support for our children,” she adds.
Zahmi says the hospital staff have seen “many families who lost their children and people who lost their fathers and mothers, and therefore we understand the tragedies.”
“We listen a lot and try to accept, but in the end, no matter how much we console them, the wound runs deep and remains in the memory,” he adds.
