Israel shoots to wound, not kill. That has led to a wave of amputations in Gaza

msn.com

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Baha Abu Ayash winced as a nurse unraveled the bandage around his right ankle. There was a whiff of rotting meat as a gaping bullet wound came into view. A doctor pinched his toes. They were black and cold.

For six days, the 23-year-old and his family had held out hope that his foot might be saved, if only he could be evacuated from the Gaza Strip. But it was too late now, the doctor from Jordan told them. Even if Israel agreed to the transfer, the decision would be the same.

"This patient needs a life-saving amputation," the doctor said. "Gangrene has set in. ... It is very critical."

Still, the family hesitated. Nobody in the family had steady work. Who would support the young man if his foot or leg were removed?

The toll of violence during two months of protests along the Gaza Strip's border with Israel is most often measured in deaths: at least 123 Palestinians killed by Israeli gunfire.

But more than 13,000 have been wounded — 3,600 of them took bullets — according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. Nearly 60 percent of those gunshot casualties were hit in the legs — a strategy employed by the Israeli military to limit killings.

Doctors say many of these wounds are unusually severe and will require multiple surgeries and months of rehabilitation. In most cases, the patients will be left with life-long disabilities....

The wounded are not the only ones who will suffer.

Entire families depend on the injured, most of them young men in their 20s and early 30s. Many joined the protests because they already had lost hope of finding a job, getting married or building a future in this deeply impoverished enclave of 2 million people wedged between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea.

"Now they are incapacitated," said Marie-Elisabeth Ingres, head of mission for the French aid group Doctors Without Borders in the Palestinian territories. "What is the future for this new generation?"