Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Sitting beside his daughter’s bed at a hospital in Amman and reading the Koran to calm her down, Ala Masri is extremely worried after the horror scene his daughter had been through during the Israeli aggression launched on the Gaza Strip.

The 31-year-old Masri said Mariam received shrapnel wounds during the fourth day of the Israeli offensive launched against Gaza, which has been going on for two weeks.

“Mariam was helping her mother at the house. A rocket hit an empty plot of land seven metres from our house and resulted in my daughter’s injury,” he told The Jordan Times at the army-run King Hussein Medical Centre (KHMC).

Masri, father of two, recounted that his family did not receive any warnings to evacuate the house before the beginning of the strike.

The Jordan Times was not able to interview Masri’s daughter to find out about her experience because she was not able to speak due to the injury.

Mariam is one of a number of wounded Gazans who were hospitalised at the KHMC in Amman.

Doctor Abdullah Sarhan, the director’s assistant of the hospital’s ICU section, said the unit received two batches of critically wounded Gazans, upon directives by His Majesty King Abdullah, which were followed up by HRH Crown Prince Hussein.

“There are nine cases transferred in two groups. The first batch included four wounded people and the second five. Injuries varied between brain injuries, lung injuries, burns and fractures,” he told The Jordan Times at the ICU.

He noted that some patients suffer from multiple injuries, adding that none of the patients has left the ICU so far because most cases are critical.

Masri recalled that after he transferred his daughter to the nearby hospital in Gaza, doctors told him that her condition is serious and the only thing he could do for his daughter was to pray for her.

“First, doctors tried to transport her to Turkey but Egypt did not agree because they closed the crossing. I had the chance to transport Mariam to Amman,” he added.

Saber Suleiman escorted his nephew Ahmad Naseer to Amman.

Naseer, a resident in Bait Hanoun, was heading to Jabaliya Camp to sell chicken. After he finished, he went back home with a friend. An Israeli fighter fired at them, he added.

There were not enough beds at the local hospital, so Naseer’s family took him to the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza. The doctors there selected him as one of six cases to be transferred to the KHMC on Sunday.

Ramzi Abdul Aal, a resident in Jabaliya Camp, said his sister alongside her six children were preparing for sohour when Israel launched its military strike in the area.

Following the Israeli offensive, the mother and one of her children died while another child is in a critical condition at the KHMC.

“He was transported to Amman on board a Jordanian military helicopter,” added the 53-year-old Abdul Aal, himself a father of 11.

The 72-year-old Suleiman was grateful for the services offered by the military hospital, while Masri said Mariam was getting better. Mariam is attached to him and wants him at her bedside all the time. But after a few days, she started to accept the nurses, who keep an eye on her, giving the father a chance to get some sleep.

He is waiting for the war to stop in Gaza, so that Mariam can sleep peacefully back home.

*Jordan Times