When Swiss doctor Raouf Salti realized he could not go to Gaza to help injured children, he decided to do everything he could to bring them to Geneva for medical care. After overcoming a significant number of bureaucratic hurdles, Salti received permission to bring four children, including a 16-year-old boy who lost a kidney and had his leg amputated. They crossed into Egypt from Gaza and then flew to Switzerland on Monday.
Salti traveled to Egypt to pick them up, and upon his return, he was greeted by his team at Geneva Airport, waving to them while holding the wide-eyed 17-month-old girl Zeina, who had been rescued from the rubble in Gaza. Salti stated, "When I saw that the situation was getting worse, I decided that my mission this time was to go there and bring them."
Salti has participated in numerous international humanitarian missions to Gaza as well as to other areas in the Middle East and Africa over the past fourteen years. He was originally scheduled to travel to Gaza on October 19 to perform surgeries, including a previously scheduled kidney operation for a young child. However, his humanitarian mission, part of his work as the founder of a non-governmental organization called "The Right of Children to Health Care," was canceled due to the Israeli attack in response to attacks by militants from the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on southern Israel.
The four children who arrived in Geneva on Monday are the second group that Salti has managed to bring to Switzerland, making a total of eight. The children were granted 90-day visas to receive medical treatment. After arriving at his office with the children and their mothers, Salti said, "The important thing is to provide them with a normal life, with people, in calm, peace, and love. A suitable life for children."
The four children were selected with the help of Salti's contacts in Gaza based on their good condition for travel and the possibility of helping them in Switzerland. Yusuf, 16, had become emaciated, weighing less than 30 kilograms after losing his left leg and having his kidney crushed in an Israeli attack. Doctors in Gaza amputated what remained of his torn leg, but he still needs to regain strength and obtain a prosthetic limb.
Zeina, 17 months old, initially received treatment at Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in Gaza, which was raided by Israeli forces in November. Her small left arm, which she keeps in a sling, suffered several fractures, and doctors attempted to heal it using an external fixation method, but it had to be removed due to infection. Salti remarked, "You can no longer talk about sterilized (equipment) there; it does not exist."
