Israel is restricting child amputees in Gaza from seeking treatment abroad, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in a report published on Wednesday, November 4 — including through medical evacuations, leaving hundreds of children without the specialised care they need.

Source: Al Jazeera

The Geneva-based monitor reported that 1,134 children in Gaza had undergone limb amputations due to Israeli attacks, but few are receiving the long-term medical care they need. The figures are the organisation's; the underlying scale is corroborated by the World Health Organization, which said 2,300 amputees — children and adults — were assessed for treatment between September 2024 and May 2026.

Source: Al Jazeera

Only eight specialists in the whole strip

"Only eight certified prosthetics and orthotics professionals are currently available in Gaza," the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said. There is not enough equipment to manufacture, fit, maintain and adjust prosthetic limbs in the strip, the organisation reported, and it said Israeli restrictions prevent Palestinians from importing the equipment needed to manufacture prosthetic limbs locally, while specialised teams require entry permits to work in Gaza and train local teams.

Source: Al Jazeera

One mother, Fidaa Ahmad Al-Shaer, 36, told the organisation that her 11-year-old son was paralysed and lost a hand after an Israeli artillery shell landed near him. He needs multiple surgeries abroad and a prosthetic limb, but cannot get through the closed crossings, she said. The boy is not named in the report.

Source: Al Jazeera

"Lifelong deprivation" warning

"Continued denial of treatment, rehabilitation, and appropriate education risks turning the harm these children face now into lifelong deprivation," the organisation warned. "Gaps in medical follow-up and failure to adjust prosthetic limbs as the children grow may cause further complications, chronic pain, and increased difficulty moving." Children's prosthetics must be refitted repeatedly as they grow, which is why the shortage of specialists and equipment compounds over time.

Source: Al Jazeera

A health system under continuing fire

The report landed on the same day the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said gunfire had hit and damaged multiple tents at a displacement site in Gaza's northern Rafah region on Tuesday, reportedly causing injuries and forcing a humanitarian partner working on flood control to leave the area ahead of the rainy season. Small-arms fire was also reported near a UN-contracted facility in Deir al Balah and close to a UN-organised convoy in Rafah, with no injuries to UN staff, OCHA said in its Wednesday update.

Source: UN News / OCHA

What happens next

Euro-Med is calling for medical evacuations and equipment imports to be allowed so the children can be treated and fitted before delays harden into permanent disability. Whether crossings open for evacuations at the scale the numbers require — more than a thousand child amputees against eight specialists — is now a decision sitting with the Israeli authorities who control the crossings, and with the mediators of the ceasefire under which Gaza's medical system is trying to rebuild.