Jihad is a joyful and energetic three year-old boy from Gaza. With his radiant smile and story of resilience, he has touched the hearts of our team and many others around the world.
Jihad was just 2 years old in 2023 when the war broke out and his home was destroyed by bombing. He endured a long, perilous journey together with his family to a camp for the displaced in Khan Yunis. There, they lived in a tent alongside other families who had also lost everything. Jihad would play in the camp with his favorite toy cars and trucks, trying to salvage the lost vestiges of his childhood amid the devastation and terrible living conditions.
Then, late one night in September 2024, an airstrike on the camp destroyed the family’s tent and inflicted severe injuries on Jihad – he was rushed to hospital, where the doctors were forced to amputate both Jihad’s legs and several fingers from his left hand.
Kinder Relief’s team on the ground in Gaza learned of Jihad’s plight and intervened immediately to support the family with their essential needs – food, water, shelter and psychological assistance; our Gaza team also provided physiotherapy sessions for Jihad following his discharge from hospital.
Simultaneously, our medevac team initiated an evacuation plan for Jihad, and in just over a month secured a fully-funded treatment option for him at one of the United States’ best prosthetics and rehabilitation centres in Jacksonville, Florida.
Our team then embarked on a months-long process of lobbying, advocacy and negotiation with key stakeholders to secure the needed approvals for Jihad’s medevac – this culminated in his successful evacuation from Gaza to Egypt, together with his mom and little brother as companions, in February 2025.
On arrival in Egypt, Kinder Relief made sure the family’s essential needs were provided for, organized physiotherapy sessions for Jihad, and finalized all the preparations and needed permissions for their onward travel to the USA. Jihad and his companions flew to Florida in early April 2025. There, he is responding well to treatment, and with the support of his mom, brother and the wider community can play in safety and security again.
