Prosthetic limbs made from planks of wood: Gaza amputees face collapsing prosthetics care

Humanity & Inclusion (HI) is warning of an escalating rehabilitation crisis in Gaza, where access to prosthetics is rapidly collapsing while tens of thousands of people - many of them children - are living with life-changing injuries, including amputations.

The charity is now looking at making prosthetic limbs from wooden planks - a desperate measure due to supplies in Gaza running out.

Interviews available with Zaid Amali, Senior Advocacy Officer for Humanity & Inclusion’s Gaza response (based in Ramallah). 

According to the World Health Organisation, nearly 42,000 people in Gaza are living with permanent injuries from the latest war - one in four are children. Yet less than one-third of pre-conflict rehabilitation services remain partially functional, and there are only eight prosthetic and orthotic technicians left in the entire Gaza Strip. One of them is working at the prosthetics and Orthotics centres of Humanity & Inclusion located in the Middle area.

The team is continuing to fit prosthetics to children and adults impacted by the violence as well as providing psychological support.  However, Humanity & Inclusion’s supplies are now critically low. No Humanity & Inclusion lorries have been allowed into Gaza since March 2025. As a result, teams are now being forced to prioritise which patients receive care and which don’t. They are warning that they will soon have to start making prosthetic limbs from wooden planks due to lack of materials.

“More people are seeking support from our team that we can provide. We don’t have enough materials. That’s why we have to prioritise who we can help. It’s extremely difficult. If this situation continues, they will have to start making prostheses out of wooden planks.” explains Zaid Amali, Senior Advocacy Officer for Humanity & Inclusion’s Gaza response.  

Zaid has witnessed the impact first-hand, especially on children: “What affects me most are the children who tell us they hope that their legs will grow back one day. It is the people who give me strength - our local staff who carry on despite everything, and the patients who try to continue living with almost nothing left.”

Humanity & Inclusion is warning that without urgent access for humanitarian supplies, it will be extremely difficult to provide the vital care that people with disabilities in Gaza desperately need.  

Tom Shelton, Interim Executive Director of Humanity & Inclusion UK explains:

"Our organisation was created to support Cambodian landmine victims fleeing the Khmer Rouge in the early 80’s.Our founders started making prosthetic limbs from bamboo, leather and car tyres because it was all they had available in the refugee camps. To think that, over forty years later, our team in Gaza is being forced back to using improvised materials like planks of wood - while proper equipment is waiting just a few miles away over the border - is shocking and totally unacceptable.”

Notes

Spokespersons

• Zaid Amali, Senior Advocacy Officer for Humanity & Inclusion’s Gaza response (based in Ramallah)
• Tom Shelton, Interim Executive Director, Humanity & Inclusion UK (based in London)