Gaza teen receiving medical care in US after double leg amputation

Editor's note: This article includes graphic descriptions of wartime injuries.

In recovery for severe injuries incurred during an alleged missile strike in Gaza, a teenage boy traveled during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and met with those who helped arrange for him to receive medical attention in the United States.

Ahmed Abu Obayda, 15, was in critical condition in February from an explosion believed to have been caused by a missile strike in his neighborhood in Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza, while he was picking vegetables, according to ABC's San Francisco station KGO.

Ahmed suffered injuries to his face, hands and legs. Both of his legs were so severely injured that he needed two below-the-knee amputations.

Dr. Mohammad Subeh, an emergency physician in Saratoga -- 45 miles southeast of San Francisco -- said he met Ahmed on the second day of his first medical mission to Gaza. The teenager was seriously hurt and needed immediate surgery, which occurred in a tent hospital -- without anesthesia.

"Ahmed came to me on the verge of death. He was hemorrhaging. Mangled lower extremities. His legs were pretty much gone, hanging on just pieces of flesh," he told KGO. "Half of his left hand was gone. He had shrapnel injuries to his limbs and abdomen."

"Not much in terms of equipment and medications were available to us, and so it made it nearly impossible for us to save people's lives or save limbs," Subeh added.

After Ahmed was stabilized, he was transferred to Egypt for further care. That's where he and his mother met workers from HEAL Palestine, a nonprofit organization that was set up in January 2024 to address the humanitarian needs on the ground in Gaza.

"Our team in Egypt found him in the spring, in need of care," Steve Sosebee, the founder of HEAL Palestine, told ABC News. "We were able to get him arranged for care there, and once accepted, got his passport made, his visa, and brought him over with another injured child on the same flight."

Since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, 2023, at least 12,000 children have been injured, which is almost 70 per day, according to UNICEF.

They are "disproportionately wearing the scars of the war in Gaza," according to the humanitarian aid organization.

However, very few children have been able to leave Gaza to receive care.

UNICEF said that between Jan. 1 and May 7 of this year, an average of 296 children a month were being medically evacuated from Gaza.

However, the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt was closed on May 7, after Israeli forces launched a ground operation. Since the closing of the Rafah border crossing, 22 children a month have been medically evacuated.

"I was excited when I found out I was selected to come to the U.S.," Ahmed told KGO, through an Arabic translator.

Ahmed and his mother arrived in the U.S. in July 2024 so that he could receive care at Shriners Children's Northern California. He is currently undergoing rehabilitation to rebuild strength in his upper body and physical therapy for his injured left hand -- all while learning how to walk again, according to KGO.

But over Thanksgiving weekend, Ahmed traveled to Oakland and met with the doctors and nonprofit workers who helped bring him to the U.S. He was able to give them updates on his recovery.

He is expected to remain in the U.S. until at least May 2025.

Since Hamas attacked Israel, at least 44,466 people have been killed in Gaza and at least 105,358 have been injured, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. About 1,700 Israelis have been killed and about 8,700 have been injured, according to Israeli officials.