Mohammed Shaban, who is 8 years old, dreamed of returning to the classroom in Gaza at the beginning of the school year. After being blinded by a missile explosion in May, he has stayed home. The boy used to attend school with his cousins and neighbors in Beit Lahia, a town in the northern Gaza Strip.
Shaban is one of the hundreds of children who were injured in May during fighting between Hamas and the Zionist entity in the Palestinian enclave controlled by Israel. Zionist forces bombarded Gaza Strip between May 10 and 21. Shaban was on his way to the market during the conflict to buy clothes when a missile exploded.
As a result of the blast, his father said, “Mohammed was injured in the eyes, which led to the loss of his eyes, and Mohammed became completely blind”. According to his father, his son still wanted to return to school but his new disability has left him moody and unpredictable. “He sometimes asks me, ‘When will I see’, or ‘When will I go back to school with the children, or ‘When will I go out to the street alone,'” he said.
During the conflict, Human Rights Watch accused both Gaza and the Zionist entity of crimes against humanity. There were 260 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes. In addition to this, the HRW said Zionist strikes were not always directed at military targets.
At present, the 8-year-old grips his father’s hand while walking through the neighborhood, his head facing down. They walk along dirt streets lined with graffiti-covered cinderblock walls.
‘He was really excited to hear the school clock’
The father sat his son down on cushions at home and showed him the collared shirts of his school uniform. Taking a pen and a notebook, Shaban began to form letters in his notebook as his parents encouraged him to do so. His parents are giving him lessons at home for the time being.
“In the future, I hope he can go to a special school for the disabled,” said Shaban’s mother. As she held her son, she burst into tears. Shaban is determined not to lose touch with his old classmates in the meantime.
In order to catch up with his classmates, he insisted on going to school on Tuesday, and his parents allowed him to do so. He briefly followed the lesson while sitting in the front row, his mother and friends sitting next to him. “He was really excited to hear the school clock,” his mother said
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Story Courtesy: Kuwait Times
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