Heartbreaking images captured the moment a one-armed orphan from Gaza cried his eyes out as he arrived in the United States for medical treatment.
Five-year-old Omar Abukwaik suffered serious injuries, including the loss of an arm, in an Israeli airstrike that killed his family and grandparents in December.
After receiving urgent care in Egypt, Omar’s aunt was able to transport him to the United States through her charity, Global Medical Relief Fund, where he will undergo several more surgeries, including preparation for a prosthetic arm.
Speaking of helping him overcome the horrors he survived, he said CBS News: “These are innocent children who have absolutely no recourse.”
He is among thousands of Palestinian refugees displaced by the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and a new immigration law pushed by President Biden this month stops the deportation of more than 6,000, according to the New York Times.
Omar Abukwaik, 5, broke down in tears when he arrived in the United States seeking urgent medical help this week.
The five-year-old boy suffered serious injuries, including the loss of an arm in an Israeli airstrike that killed his entire family (pictured) and his grandparents in December.
Although the boy miraculously survived the airstrike, he suffered serious injuries to his face, leg and arm and has undergone several surgeries and skin grafts.
The boy arrived at New York’s JFK airport this week from Cairo, after his aunt Elissa Montanti overcame bureaucratic red tape to get him the urgent medical care he needs.
His entire family was killed in an airstrike on Gaza in December, as Israel prepared its counteroffensive against the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7.
Human rights organizations have condemned the high number of civilian casualties in Gaza, including more than 7,000 children, that have resulted from the airstrikes, including the impact on families like Omar’s.
While his mother, father, grandparents, and two young brothers were killed, Omar miraculously survived, but suffered serious injuries, including leg wounds, burns, and the amputation of his left arm.
He initially received urgent care in Cairo, Egypt, where he will return in a few weeks, but still needed further trauma treatment.
Thanks to his aunt’s charity, Omar has been able to be treated by American health specialists on the East Coast, while also enjoying some brief moments of his childhood, such as experiencing snow for the first time.
Although he is scheduled to return to Egypt, Omar’s stay in the United States gave him the opportunity to enjoy his childhood again, since in the photograph he is seen experiencing snow for the first time.
His aunt Elissa Montanti (pictured), director of the Global Medical Aid Fund, said: “It’s just important, very important, to empower a child who has had so much taken away from him.”
Montanti said his charity has helped similarly affected children from more than 60 countries suffering from war or natural disasters.
For her nephew, she partnered with Shriners Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to facilitate his care, and the five-year-old is being fitted with a prosthetic arm.
One of his doctors told CBS News: “The fact that Omar was able to be brought here is good for Omar.”
“Whether he stayed in Gaza or Egypt, who knows,” he continued. “I don’t know what would have happened.”
Omar’s recovery is expected to take several weeks, and his aunt praises how the United States was able to offer medical treatment to the injured boy.
“It’s very important and empowering,” Montanti said.
‘You are giving them back their youth when they are so little and their integrity. “It’s just important, so important, to empower a child who has had so much taken away from them.”
But before returning across the Atlantic, his aunt gave him one last chance to be a child in America while enjoying a day at a children’s museum.
The boy’s help comes as Israel continues its siege of Gaza, with four women and a child among eight wounded by another airstrike on Sunday.
People gather in front of a building destroyed in the Rafah airstrike on February 24. At least eight people died.
Palestinians help a man injured after the bombing in Rafah. Four women and a child are said to have been murdered.
Hamas claims that IDF attacks have left 92 Palestinians dead in the past 24 hours.
It was also reported that the total number of dead in almost five months of war rose to 29,606 and the total number of wounded to almost 70,000.
The figure comes from the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters and has said that two-thirds of the dead were children and women.
Meanwhile, Israel claimed its troops have killed more than 10,000 Hamas fighters, but has not provided details.
More than 100 hostages remain captive in Gaza.