“‘ I was taken to the morgue’: Gazan teen evacuee shares the horrors of Israel’s war on children.”

At first, health workers believed Majd Alshaghnobi was dead.

The 15-year-old had been waiting in line for flour at the Kuwait Roundabout in northern Gaza in February 2024 when Israeli shrapnel tore through his face, shattering his jaw and lower mouth.

“Someone dragged me away to safety,” Majd recalled in an interview with CNN. “I was placed in a morgue refrigerator because they thought I was dead. But then I moved my hand, and that’s how they realized I was still alive.”

Palestinian doctors rushed him out and stitched his wounds in a hospital kitchen—Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City had no operating rooms left. His survival became one of many examples of medical improvisation in a health system collapsing under relentless bombardment. Later, Majd made his way alone through destroyed neighborhoods and past military checkpoints before finally reuniting with his mother in Khan Younis.

“It was terrifying,” he said. “I was very scared because the Israelis were there.”

In July, Majd became the third child from Gaza to reach the United Kingdom through a private medical evacuation arranged by the NGO Project Pure Hope with support from Gaza Kinder Relief. The UK government did not fund his evacuation or treatment.

On Tuesday, Majd underwent complex facial reconstruction surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, just days after Britain announced a new scheme to admit severely injured Gazan children for treatment.

His case highlights a broader crisis. Aid groups warn that children in Gaza are bearing the brunt of the war: more than 50,000 have been killed or injured, according to UNICEF. Gaza now has the world’s highest rate of child amputees per capita, said Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA.

The collapse of Gaza’s health system—worsened by bombings and strict border restrictions since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023—has left thousands unable to access care. WHO reports that more than 700 people, including nearly 140 children, have died waiting for medical evacuation.

Between October 2023 and July 2024, over 7,600 patients were evacuated from Gaza, more than 5,300 of them children. The UK received only 0.03% of those patients, according to Doctors Without Borders.

“We see countless children who have lost limbs, who cannot eat properly,” said Omar Din, co-founder of Project Pure Hope. “Majd’s case is just one story. With all the will in the world, we should be doing much more.”

Doctors in London stress that Majd’s surgery, while life-changing, is only “a drop in the ocean” compared to the scale of need.

“Hopefully, the outcome of his treatment will set a precedent for more children to be brought here,” said Dr. Owase Jeelani, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

But Majd’s family remains fractured. While he and his mother are now in London, his two younger brothers, Muhammad (14) and Yusuf (12), remain displaced in northern Gaza with their father.

“If I had known the war would resume, I would never have left them,” their mother, Islam Felfel, told CNN. “They say to me, ‘You left us here. You took the boy you love and left us, and we could die at any moment.’ It breaks my heart.”

With Israel’s current offensive in Gaza City shutting down hospitals and displacing more than 320,000 people since mid-August, her sons are unable to afford the $3,000 fee to travel south.

“Their home is gone, their safe places are gone,” Felfel said. “Now they are on the streets. Being apart from them is tearing me apart.”