Majd Alshagnobi arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport together with his mom and two siblings to a hero’s welcome on Wednesday night, with well-wishers bearing flowers, presents, and banners.
It has been a tortuous look ahead to {the teenager}, who suffered extreme facial accidents in February 2024 when Israeli tank shells exploded close to him and a gaggle of mates.
Majd misplaced a part of his face in addition to his whole jaw and all his enamel. It has left him and his household traumatised.
His mom, Islam, instructed me that medical doctors on the Mamadani hospital in Gaza have been shocked that her son survived the incident.
Picture:
Majd Alshagnobi’s mom Islam
“When Majd first got to the hospital, they thought he was dead because of the severities of the injuries on his face and leg,” she mentioned. “But when he raised his arm, they realised he was still alive.
“All of the working rooms have been busy, in order that they carried out the operation within the kitchen to avoid wasting him.
“It was very difficult for him to breathe, and they had to feed him through tubes and syringes through his nose. He really suffered.”
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Majd stood awestruck on the window of the small central London condominium the place his household had been accommodated. He wore a blue surgical masks however gently pulled it all the way down to reveal a smile.
“Thank God I have the opportunity to receive treatment here… that’s the reason I have come. To get treatment,” he mentioned. “Since I arrived, I have felt so much happier.
“We have been greeted in such a pleasant manner, with presents and issues to assist us.”
But it will take time for the young football fan to come to terms with the trauma he has suffered.
When I ask him what he remembers from his time in Gaza, he replies: “I noticed canine consuming our bodies and I used to be terrified, and I believed I used to be going to die. Stuff like that…”
His mother, who has had to leave two of her children in Gaza with their father, tells me: “Proper now my household in Gaza stay in tents. We have misplaced our house, we have misplaced our recollections, we have misplaced our desires. Nothing is left in Gaza.
“My two children who are still in Gaza with their father, every day I wake up in fear that they have been killed. Anything could happen to them in Gaza.”
Round 5,000 youngsters have been evacuated from Gaza, with the bulk going to Egypt and Gulf international locations.
Majd is the third youngster to come back to the UK with the assistance of the charity Challenge Pure Hope.
The group of volunteers have been campaigning successive governments for the final 20 months to create a scheme which might enable for the evacuation of 30 to 50 youngsters.
The charity has raised the cash to carry the youngsters and their households to the UK, and canopy their medical prices, privately.
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Faucet to comply with
Final week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer mentioned the federal government was “accelerating efforts” to evacuate Gazan youngsters who want pressing medical care within the UK.
Omar Din, the co-founder of Challenge Pure Hope, says it’s time for the federal government to step in and take accountability.
“We’re hoping following the prime minister’s announcement last Friday, that in the coming days we’ll have some concrete actions,” he mentioned. “The more we wait, the more children die who we could be saving.
“We have completed this privately as a result of there was no different choice obtainable however myself, and members of my founding staff, have completed numerous this work for Ukrainian refugees beforehand. There is not any motive we should not be doing that for Gazans.”
