Consider This from NPR
Never give up - one Gaza boy's story of trying to survive in Gaza
Sun, 16 Mar 2025
Nearly 40, 000.That's the United Nations estimate for the number of children who have been killed or injured since Israel began its war with Hamas some 18 months ago. Last year, NPR profiled one injured Gazan boy, Nimer Sadi al-Nimer, who was shot five times by the Israeli military while he and his father were gathering food dropped by parachute outside Gaza City. This week, NPR Gaza producer Anas Baba tracked Nimer down to hear what the past year has been like. NPR correspondent Rob Schmitz speaks with Baba about what he learned after reconnecting with Nimer.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What is the current situation for children in Gaza?
Nearly 40,000. That's the United Nations estimate for the number of children who have been killed or injured since Israel began its war with Hamas some 18 months ago.
I've seen a lot, and I never compare conflicts, but that's got to be the most nightmarish thing I've ever seen. And the most, one of the most inhumane and cruel things I'll ever see.
That's pediatrician Seema Jalani in a voice memo she recorded while volunteering in an emergency room of a Gaza hospital in late 2023. She was talking about an 11-year-old girl burned in an explosion.
To look at her... was an infinite waterfall of pain coming out from her. It's the stuff of nightmares.
Shortly after Dr. Jelani left Gaza, she spoke to NPR's Ari Shapiro about what it felt like to be a pediatrician in a war zone.
You know, as a pediatrician, I didn't think I would be very useful because this is war. And in war, I would imagine and think that the victims or the war wounded or the killed would be predominantly young men. I can say that on one day in our code room, in our code resuscitation room, out of our five patients, four were children.
And I'm very sad and deeply disturbed to say that I was very useful as a pediatrician in a war zone. And that should never be the case.
Consider this. Gaza's children have been on the front lines of the war between Israel and Hamas. They have been killed, they have been injured, and their society has disintegrated under the weight of the conflict. Coming up, we hear from one young boy trying to recover from his wounds and find a way forward. From NPR, I'm Rob Schmitz.
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Chapter 2: What experiences did Dr. Seema Jalani have in Gaza?
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It's Consider This from NPR. A year ago, NPR Gaza producer Anas Baba and I reported a story about Nimr Saadi al-Nimr, an 11-year-old boy who had been shot five times by the Israeli military while he and his father were gathering food dropped by parachute outside Gaza City.
Israeli soldiers took Nimr across the border into Israel where doctors performed two surgeries on him, saving his life before returning Nimr to a refugee camp in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. That's where Anas Baba found Nimr a year ago. He was in a makeshift tent with his grandmother and uncle, crying out in pain from his wounds, as you can hear in our report from April of 2024. No, I can't!
Nimmer is in pain. It comes in waves. He's just had surgery on his stomach, back, legs, and hand to remove bullets. Each left long incision wounds lined with stitches and dried pus. Flies are drawn to them. When he takes too deep of a breath, his skinny frame convulses uncontrollably like an electric shock shooting through him.
He cries out for drugs that will numb the pain, but there are none here. After this story aired a year ago, we lost track of Nimr. We didn't know if he was alive or dead. But this past week, Anas Baba found Nimr, who is now 12, thankfully alive, but still suffering from his wounds and the toll of the war in Gaza. Anas joins me now from Gaza. Hello, Anas. How are you? Hello, Rob.
Anas, I want you to tell me about Nimr. Where is he now and how is he doing?
Never now he's in al-Buraj camp, center Gaza, at his grandmother's house, and has finally reunited with his mother and his family. He's suffering. He wears a knee brace and drags his right leg, unable to control it after nerve damage. He cannot stand for long periods, but he's alive. And that's a miracle by itself.
Yeah, that is a miracle, given what Gaza has gone through in this past year. Here's a portion of your interview with Nimer about the lasting impact of his gunshot wounds a year ago. And Nimr is telling you here that after he had a surgical procedure to deaden his nerve endings, he still cannot run, he cannot play soccer or even walk very far.
He says he still has an electric shock feeling when he accidentally bumps his leg and that it often makes him cry. He's saying here that he mostly stays inside. When he does go outside, he says he sees his friends playing and running, and he feels jealous. He says, I'm afraid they'll make fun of me for not being able to run. Anas, that is really sad to hear that.
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