Padova, Italy – Abdullah, 10, rarely takes his eyes off his tablet as he plays his favorite video game, where he creates a virtual universe that allows him to imagine it.
The beeping of a chemotherapy infusion pump delivering drugs into his veins briefly returns his attention and he fumbles for a plug-in device charger before resuming his game.
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His mother, Iman Ismail Mohammed Abu Mazid, said he picked up the gaming habit after leaving Gaza on May 14 to travel to the Italian city of Padova to receive life-saving treatment for leukemia.
In the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, which the family called home, he was a “very sociable boy” who was “always playing football in the street with his brothers and other kids his age,” she told Al Jazeera, snapping a picture of the boy she remembered before looking up from her phone.
In it, three well-to-do children look at the camera. Abdullah’s appearance remains calm, but his hair has grown longer and his skin has a yellow tint. Standing next to him in the picture are Mohammed, who is now 11, and Mahmoud, who is eight. Towering above them and proudly placing his hands on their shoulders was their father, Ahmed.
The cancer that consumed Abdullah also tore his family apart.
Abdullah, his mother Iman and one-year-old Qamar were given seats on the medical evacuation flight that took them to Italy, while the rest of the family – Ahmed and two other children, Mohammed and Mahmoud – stayed behind in Gaza, which Israel continues to bombard. Armistice Agreement to be in place.
Now this disease may be what brings them back together. In early November, a team of doctors in Gaza took blood samples from Abdullah’s siblings and sent them to Italy to determine their suitability as donors for the boy’s bone marrow transplant.
If there is a match, they will all be allowed to board the medical plane to Padova. If the result is negative, they have to apply to the Italian government for family reunification – a lengthy process fraught with logistical challenges.
Iman said the fate of his family hangs on these results. They were able to save Abdullah from the disease and the rest of his family from Israel’s massacre of Gaza.
“I fear for their safety every day,” she said. “Abdullah misses his siblings and I miss my children too.”
Abdullah nodded shyly and remembered a well-made kebab. He doesn’t like Italian food and misses the seasoned meats he gets at the family’s restaurant in Deir al-Balah.
Asked if he wanted to bring Gaza to Padova, he said, “Not all of it, just my neighborhood.”
Ending the war in Gaza
Iman discovers that Qamar is pregnant in March 2024, as the war rages around her. At first, she thought her turn had been skipped because she wasn’t living on just water and bread. When it was revealed that a fourth child was on the way, she remembers feeling “terrified”.
“I was constantly worried and worried that they would tell me that the baby was deformed, abnormal, sick,” because of the lack of food and hygiene, she said. “My body was tired, and I couldn’t stand up. I spent my whole pregnancy lying on the floor,” she says quickly in Arabic, before picking up the toddler, who was pulling her legs hard, and placing her on her lap to feed him.
Her baby daughter was delivered in a tented field hospital in Deir al-Balah that lacked basic sanitation and medicine as victims of Israeli bombardment were rushed in.
“At any moment you could see someone injured – a limb amputated, an arm amputated … the scenes were horrific,” she said. “And the doctors were scared because that area was being targeted.”
A few months later, in April this year, Abdullah began to feel ill.
“He was yellow, he had a stomach ache, he had a headache,” she said.
At Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Abdullah was put on an IV and given painkillers and antibiotics. The fluid stopped the fever from escalating, but nothing could stop the cancer from spreading.
The family was advised to take him to a European hospital in Khan Yunis, despite the Israeli army announcing a major expansion of military operations in the area.
The 10-kilometre (six-mile) ride south was “terrifying”.
“There was not a soul on the street,” Iman recalled. Doctors may only offer mild chemotherapy treatments. Abdullah was flagged to the World Health Organization (WHO) for medical evacuation.
Unexpectedly, medical evacuation was granted shortly after. Iman and her husband Ahmed needed no words to decide to separate the family.
“There was more silence than communication,” she said.
Ahmed arrived at the European Hospital on May 13 to bid an emotional farewell to Iman, Abdullah and Qamar. As he exits the compound, the earth shakes and a concrete slab flies over his head.
That day, the Israeli military announced that it had dropped nine bunker-busting bombs and dozens of other munitions in and around the hospital’s courtyard. They claimed to have killed Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar and more than 20 members of the group. International law prohibits attacks on hospitals, which constitute a war crime. Hamas confirmed Sinwar’s death in August, but did not provide details on how he died.
“I was convinced that (my husband) had been killed,” recalls Iman.
“I kept calling him and screaming, ‘I swear, he’s gone’,” she said. “I called 10 or more times, but he didn’t answer. I was sure he was a martyr. But I didn’t give up, I didn’t give up! After a lot of effort, finally, he answered.”
A new life away from home
Abdullah is among more than 5,500 children evacuated from Gaza through medical evacuations coordinated by the WHO.
A total of 8,000 people have so far managed to be released for life-saving treatment, but 16,500 people are still waiting, according to UN figures. 3,800 of them are children.
Since July 2024, more than 900 patients have died while waiting for medical evacuation, according to the WHO.
Abdullah was flown to Padova because of lawyer Rebecca Fedetto, who in February founded an organization to facilitate and support medical migration.
“I knew I wanted to do something and be active,” she told Al Jazeera. “I could not live normally, my conscience did not allow it.”
Fedetto worked the phone looking for someone who could help navigate the process of paperwork, approvals and coordination needed to provide referrals to move patients to an overseas medical facility.
“At one point, I thought I’m not going to make it, it’s all so complicated,” she said. “When it started working, I couldn’t believe it.”
Her self-created NGO, Padova Abbraccia i Bambini (Padova Hugs Children), has welcomed 25 people and facilitated six medical evacuations. Among them are six-year-old Ahmad, who has recovered from third-degree burns on half of his body, and eight-year-old Seela, who has lost both legs.
A team of volunteers attends to families’ every need, offering transportation, babysitting, homeschooling and emotional support.
Fedetto said the city’s response has been overwhelming.
“Many people have emailed us asking if they can help, because this war is something that touches our conscience,” she said. “Often people want to help, they just don’t know how.”
The WHO has called on countries to facilitate more medical evacuations as Gaza’s health care remains limited. Out of 36 hospitals, only 18 are partially functional.
More than 30 countries have so far heeded the call, including EU member states, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
“We are grateful for their solidarity,” Rick Pieperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told Al Jazeera.
Pepperkorn said that under the terms of the ceasefire, the WHO should be able to evacuate 50 patients per day, in addition to their caregivers.
“To make this possible, more countries should generously step forward and accept patients in need,” he said.