LONDON: A Jordanian-led initiative to equip thousands of victims of the war in Gaza with prosthetic limbs has started, Sky News reported on Tuesday.

Two mobile clinics entered the war-ravaged territory on Monday with the aim of helping 14,000 amputees. The estimated cost of each fitting is around £1,000 ($1,321).

The program involves UK-based companies Koalaa and Amparo, both of which have developed easy-to-fit sockets for upper and lower limb prosthetics.

Using advanced British-designed technology, the doctors aim to fit a functioning prosthesis every hour.

Each fitting will be registered digitally, allowing for remote follow-up procedures with specialist doctors based in Amman or around the world.

“Medical estimates indicate that over 14,000 people have been injured and lost one or more limbs,” Jordanian Brig. Gen. Mustafa Al-Hiyari told Sky News.

“Our project is distinguished not only by the large number (of prosthetics provided) but also by its speed; as specialists will declare, a prosthetic limb would be installed in less than an hour.

“Those who cannot reach the hospital, the equipped vans will go to them,” the Jordanian Armed Forces member said.

Most of the amputees from the war cannot leave Gaza for treatment elsewhere, and the conflict has displaced about 90 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.

The top UN humanitarian official for Gaza told the UN Security Council on Monday that more must be done to protect civilians.

“Time is slipping away as a man-made humanitarian crisis has turned Gaza into the abyss,” Sigrid Kaag, the UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, said.

Kaag said humanitarian operations are impeded by lawlessness, Israeli evacuation orders, fighting, and operating conditions for aid workers. She cited Israeli denials of access, delays, a lack of safety and security, and “poor logistical infrastructure.”

DOHA: Qatar’s foreign ministry said Tuesday efforts to forge a Gaza truce were “ongoing,” after several rounds of talks aimed at ending the now 11-month war ended without a breakthrough.
“The efforts are still ongoing and channels of communication remain open... the goals and visits and meetings are ongoing,” ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari told reporters.
Months of behind-the-scenes negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have failed to halt the fighting between Hamas and Israel, apart from a one-week truce beginning in late November.
Recent mediation in Doha and Cairo has been based on a framework laid out in May by US President Joe Biden and a “bridging proposal” presented to the warring parties in August.
The US State Department said Monday Secretary of State Antony Blinken would visit Egypt this week to “discuss ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire,” his tenth trip to the region since the Gaza Strip war began on October 7.
After in-person talks last month in Egypt and Qatar broke up without a final agreement, Washington indicated that mediators were preparing to present another adapted framework for a ceasefire.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday Washington was working “expeditiously” on a new proposal.
Ansari declined to comment Tuesday on whether any further proposal had been relayed to Israel or Hamas.
“When it comes to the possibility of a deal taking place anytime soon, of course we remain hopeful at every juncture,” he said.
“I can’t comment on the prospects of a deal taking place right now but I can tell you that we remain hopeful and we continue with our efforts.”
Hamas said its delegation met Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Doha last week to discuss a truce and potential hostage and prisoner exchange, again without indicating that any breakthrough had been reached.
Pressure inside Israel for a deal has intensified after authorities announced the deaths of six hostages at the start of September after their bodies were recovered from a Gaza tunnel.
But in the face of the external calls for an agreement, both Israel and Hamas have publicly signalled deeper entrenchment in their negotiating positions.
On Tuesday Israel announced an expansion of its war aims, widening its fight against Hamas in Gaza to focus on Hezbollah along its northern border with Lebanon.
The October 7 attack by Palestinian militants on southern Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,252 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.