Nizar Elmansi speaks bluntly: “Since I was born, I have lived in a war.” This 17-year-old Palestinian admits that he was already “accustomed” to the barbarity in the Gaza Strip. The offensive launched by Israel on October 7 after the Hamas attack did not change his situation much. “Every year there were bombings, attacks and many deaths. I knew that at any moment it could be me,” he says. The violence hit him directly on April 16 — according to his mother’s recall — in a bombing of the Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of the Strip, where he was living at the time. At least 11 people died in the attack, including his brother and two of his cousins. Nizar miraculously survived, but due to his serious condition he had to have both legs amputated. He is now recovering in Madrid.
Sitting in an office of the Accem humanitarian foundation in the city centre, Nizar speaks about this event with a certain calm, emphasizing with his hands what he says in Arabic. “I woke up after nine days in a hospital and there they told me that they had to operate on me. I was very surprised and protested, but they had to do it.” Shortly afterwards he was transferred to Egypt, where he continued his treatment, accompanied by his mother and his brother Yousef, aged eight. At the end of July, Nizar and 14 other Gazan children, together with their relatives, were evacuated to Spain to receive medical care in hospitals in five autonomous communities: Asturias, Castilla-La Mancha, the Basque Country, Navarre and Madrid.
This complex operation took months to develop: the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, announced at the end of May that Spain would take in “around thirty” children with cancer or severe trauma who were in the Turkish hospital in Gaza City. However, the closure of the Rafah crossing (on the border with Egypt) by the Israeli army made an evacuation from the Strip impossible.
The blockade forced the Spanish authorities to implement a plan B: to take in Gazan minors who were already in Egypt. “We agreed with the WHO [Organización Mundial de la Salud] “Spain was the one to carry out the first mission of this nature so that other European countries could also sign up,” explains by telephone Mónica García, Minister of Health and one of the main organisers of the operation, in which the Ministries of Inclusion, Foreign Affairs, Defence and the Interior also participated.
Once in Cairo, Spanish health workers and officials began medical assessments to ensure the children’s safe transfer, and psychological tests to prepare for the support they would receive during their stay, which was initially planned to last three months.
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Alda Recas, an advisor to the State Secretariat for Health who travelled to the Egyptian capital for the mission, recounts her experience: “I have been a volunteer for a long time, but one never gets used to it because these are dramatic stories. I remember a mother who, in addition to the two daughters she went to Egypt with, has four other children in Gaza. ‘If I go to Spain, what will happen to them?’ she told us. We came out of there crying.” Among the minors there are also cases such as that of a six-year-old girl with leukaemia, or that of a two-year-old boy, who had to have shrapnel removed from his body, according to Recas.
All of these children and their families suffered severe deprivation and danger. Nizar had to leave his home in Gaza City for the Maghazi camp, near the city of Deir al Balah. “There was no more food and my father told us that we had to leave there, that he would stay,” he says. During the journey to this area, further south in the Strip, escorted by Israeli tanks and soldiers, Nizar walked with his luggage on his back and with his hands raised: in one he carried his identity document and in the other a makeshift white flag. “I wanted them to see who I was, but I wanted them to see who I was.” [los soldados] They insulted us and threatened to kill us.”
The situation was not good in Maghazi either. The entire enclave was under siege and the camp had already been the scene of major attacks, such as the bombing of a UN school in October – just days after the start of the offensive – or the killing of at least 70 people on Christmas Eve, in one of the deadliest single attacks of the war, according to the Gaza authorities. “When we went further south there was a little more food, but there could be periods of two weeks when nothing arrived. Humanitarian aid was very little and it was never enough,” he laments. It was there that the attack occurred in which he lost both legs.
The young man, wearing a red T-shirt and a scarf decorated with the Palestinian flag on one side and the pattern of the kufiya on the other, pauses a couple of times to watch his younger brother playing around in the office. Their mother watches him, sitting in silence. What does she think of the evacuation? “My mother has suffered a lot. When we arrived in Spain, she was very nervous because she didn’t know the language, the food and the culture, but as the days go by, she is becoming calmer,” she answers.
It is a natural reaction, explains Carolina Flores, coordinator of the Accem Foundation’s project to welcome Gazans. “These people do not suffer from a single traumatic experience, but from a series of them that they also experience collectively. That is why we believe that the earlier the psychosocial care, the better.” The Elmansi family, like the others spread throughout Spain, are receiving support in different areas such as school, social and economic, stress sources from the Ministry of Health.
Although the stay is expected to last three months, the period may be extended, depending on the physical and mental recovery of each of the minors and their families. There are some who want to return to Egypt as soon as possible, says adviser Recas, because they have other relatives who are still trapped in the Strip and prefer to stay close. But those who wish to do so can request asylum in Spain. In turn, the Minister of Health does not rule out the Government carrying out another evacuation in the future: “I would like this not to stop here. There has been a lot of coordination and solidarity from the autonomous communities and we also want more European countries to join in.” After Spain, Belgium and Italy have carried out similar operations.
Nizar says his plan is not yet clear, but admits that he feels comfortable in Spain. “For total security, I could live here in peace,” he says. But he also misses his home and says he wants to return at some point. In any case, first he has to overcome a surgical intervention scheduled for next week, the first step to receive the prostheses for both legs, in addition to numerous physical therapies that will come later, with the ultimate goal of being able to walk again. One thing is clear: dedicate himself to his hobbies, such as swimming again and playing soccer. “I also want to be a gamerwith my own YouTube channel,” he says smiling.
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