Dawabsheh does not like to look back.
He has good reason. The 12-year-old survived one of the worst settler attacks in recent years when his family’s home in the village of Duma in the occupied West Bank district of Nablus was firebombed by Israeli settlers in 2015.
Ahmad’s 18-month-old brother Ali was burned to death.
His father Saad died a week later from his injuries. Riham, Ahmad’s mother, died a month after that.
Ahmad was 4 at the time. He sustained severe burns all over his body.
And the attack still casts a dark shadow over life in the village.
According to Nasser Dawabsheh, 48, the uncle who is now raising Ahmad, relations between the villagers in Duma and the settlers surrounding them have only gotten worse – and since 2015 the village has been attacked at least a dozen more times.
As for Ahmad, he is trying to put it behind him.
“The attack doesn’t affect me anymore because I don’t allow myself to think about it,” Ahmad told The Electronic Intifada, sitting on a sofa chair in his uncle’s home. He attempts to twirl a football in between his fingers, catching it before it falls to the ground.
Ahmad still has burn scars across the right side of his face and across his body. He has had years of reconstructive surgery and skin grafts, and his treatment is far from over.
Every six months, he must undergo laser skin treatment for the scars, along with hair restoration surgeries and more skin grafts. The family receives special military permission to access this treatment at an Israeli hospital.
“We don’t feel happy going there [inside Israel],” Nasser said. “But it is only Israeli hospitals that have the medical equipment, so we have no other choice.”
As tensions soar across the occupied West Bank – the United Nations finding that 2022 has been the “deadliest year” for Palestinians in the West Bank since it started counting fatalities in 2005 – the Dawabsheh family is left to fend for themselves.
(📸 Jaclynn Ashly)
From "Family of baby killed by settlers fears fresh attacks" by Jaclynn Ashly. Read the full article at electronicintifada.net.
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