Trauma and hope

Scars remain for girl, 13, a year after fatal strike

- Thaslima Begum

Mazyouma spent months waiting to be taken abroad for treatment

In June 2024, an Israeli missile struck 13-year-old Mazyouna Damoo's apartment in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, hurling her and her mother into the street.

Her younger sister, Tala, was pulled from beneath the rubble alive, but her other siblings - Hala, 13, and Mohannad, 10 - were killed instantly. Mazyouna survived, but half of her face was ripped off, leaving her jawbone exposed.

More than a year on, Mazyouna's journey and ongoing recovery in a hospital in the US have become a rare story of hope from the two-year Gaza war that has now entered a ceasefire. But it was a recovery that almost never happened.

With Gaza's hospitals overwhelmed and unable to provide advanced reconstructive surgery, her family's pleas last year for evacuation became desperate. For months, her parents appealed to the Israeli body overseeing humanitarian permits to allow Mazyouna to leave Gaza for treatment. Each request was either ignored or rejected.

During this time, her wounds worsened, becoming infected, and fragments of shrapnel embedded in her face caused excruciating pain.

After the Guardian reported on her ordeal, Israel finally permitted her to leave to get surgical care.

Last November, Mazyouna, her mother and her surviving sister travelled to the US for her medical treatment, settling in El Paso, Texas. It has been almost a year since they moved into a home on a quiet, tree-lined street with views of the Franklin mountains.