'I want to be pretty like before': Gaza girl burnt by bombs hopes for treatment abroad

Hanan Akel, 10, says she wants to be able to play with her friends and siblings again

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A young girl whose face was badly burnt by Israeli shelling provides a striking example of the terrible injuries being inflicted on Palestinians during the continuing Israel-Gaza war.

Ten-year-old Hanan Akel spent the Eid Al Adha festival last weekend in hospital after she was hit by Israeli shelling in Al Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

She suffered second and third-degree burns on her face and limbs and was taken to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al Balah, central Gaza.

"I didn't feel the Eid, as if there was no Eid," she said from her hospital bed.

"The Eid will be when I return to our house, when I have recovered. Eid will be when my face heals back," she said.

Hanan's voice trembled and sounded weak as she spoke, with her eyes partly shut. Her face was covered in burns and blood.

She hopes for treatment and her face to heal.

"I want to get treated and for my face to heal and to return pretty like before, and for my body to heal, and I want to get dressed and walk, and play again with my friends and my siblings," she said.

Hanan's mother Walaa looks at her in her bed at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Reuters

Hanan is one of many children to be killed and injured since Israel launched its war in Gaza more than eight months, in retaliation for the Hamas-led attacks on October 7.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, almost 37,400 Palestinians have been killed in the war. More than 10,000 of those have been identified as children, the ministry says. The real death toll of children is thought to be much higher, with at least 10,000 of the casualties yet to be identified, likely because the bodies are under rubble.

Earlier this month, Gaza's Ministry of Education said more than 15,000 children had been killed in the conflict. Most of the dead were of nursery and primary school age, the ministry said, as it marked the International Day of Innocent Child Victims of Aggression.

More than 85,500 Palestinians have been injured, many with life-changing wounds like Hanan.

Her mother, Walaa Akel, said she was very sad about her daughter's injuries.

"I am very sad about my daughter, whose face has been distorted. She was beautiful, she was like a flower," she said.

Ms Akel said her daughter was walking to the shop when the strike took place.

"After the war, what will she be like? How will she get up?" she asked.

- With reporting from agencies