BEIRUT — When Zarifa Nawfal’s family arrived in Beirut for their injured daughter’s operation, one of the first things they wanted to do was go to the sea. The Mediterranean was a constant companion in their home in Gaza before the war.

“From the moment I smelled the sea, I felt at peace inside – as if I was in Gaza,” she said.

But soon, their place of refuge reminded him of home in a much more painful way.

Nawfal’s 7-year-old daughter, Halima Abou Yassine, is among a dozen seriously injured Palestinian children brought to Lebanon this year for treatment under a program launched by an Anglo-Palestinian surgeon, Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta.

But months after their arrival, Lebanon is itself involved in a war some fears will result in Gaza-like destruction.

As of February, Nawfal was living with her five children and her mother in an apartment in central Gaza. They had been displaced from their home in the north and Nawfal’s husband was missing, probably dead.

The children were filling water containers outside when two missiles struck, Nawfal said. She rushed outside and found Halima, the youngest, lying in the street, her skull split open, her brain exposed.

Despite her shock, Nawfal said: “I was relieved that his body was in one piece. » In Gaza, explosions often tore people apart, leaving their loved ones without even a body to bury.

Halima’s brother was unconscious next to her. He was quickly resuscitated at the hospital. But staff at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital confirmed Nawfal’s fears: Halima was dead. His little body was placed in the morgue.

But as the family prepared to bury her, the little girl’s uncle noticed slight signs of life, the family said.

Officials at Al-Aqsa Hospital could not be contacted to confirm this information. But Abu Sitta, who worked in several hospitals in Gaza during the war, said that in the chaotic situation it was not uncommon for patients to be wrongly identified as dead because normal emergency room examination protocols were often abandoned.

“Because of the large number of cases that came in with each air raid… paramedics would immediately take those they thought were dead to the morgue,” he said.

In the days after her daughter was determined to be alive, Nawfal stayed with her, manually pumping oxygen into her lungs. After a week, the little girl started breathing on her own. Finally, she woke up.

“Some doctors cried and said it was a miracle,” Nawfal said.

But they couldn’t do more than keep the little girl alive. His skull was still wide open, a shard of bone missing. His brain was plagued by an infection.

The family was evacuated to Egypt in May. In July, they took a plane to Lebanon.

The first of the injured Palestinian children arrived in Lebanon in May. Five-year-old Adam Afana nearly lost his left arm in an explosion that killed his father and sister. His arm was paralyzed and he needed complex surgery to correct the nerve damage.

At the time, Lebanon was already embroiled in a simmering conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanese militant group began firing rockets across border into Israel in support of his allyHamas, October 8, 2023, a day after Palestinian militants staged the deadly surprise incursion into southern Israel that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza. Israel responded with bombings and airstrikes.

For months, the conflict in Lebanon was mainly confined to the border area, far from Beirut.

Abu Sitta said he chose Lebanon to treat injured children because the Mediterranean country has specialists with extensive experience in treating war injuries.

Lebanon has seen its share of conflicts, including a 15-year civil war that ended in 1990 and a brutal month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, as well as fallout from other regional conflicts.

“Even after the wars (in Lebanon) ended, the wounded from Iraq and Syria would come here for this kind of complex, multi-stage treatment,” Abu Sitta said.

In July, Halima successfully underwent surgery to repair her skull at the American University of Beirut Medical Center.

Nawfal said her daughter had persistent memory problems but therapy was improving. A happy-go-lucky child, Halima thrived in Beirut. She swam in the hotel pool, loved to color and played with the other Gaza children. She walked with her siblings to pick fruit at the neighborhood produce stand, a straw hat covering the scar on the back of her head.

In mid-September, Israel launched a offensive against Hezbollah. He hit large swathes of Lebanon with airstrikes, notably in the southern suburbs of Beirut and on certain sites in the city center.