Nimer Saddy al-Nimer is 12. His first name means "Tiger" in Arabic. Wavy locks of sandy brown hair rest just above his large brown eyes. He's skinny and tall for his age. He calls himself a "soccer addict," he's a fan of FC Barcelona, and Lionel Messi is his hero. He'd pretend to be the Argentine superstar when he played pickup games with his friends in the alleys behind the mosque near his home in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City.
But that was before the war.
Nimer now lies inside a makeshift tent propped up by two-by-fours. The roof is a sheet of transparent plastic. The walls, old billboards and other scrap found here among the refugee camps of Rafah, on the opposite side of the Gaza Strip from his home.
Nimer is in pain. It comes in waves. He's just had surgery on his stomach, back, legs and hand to remove bullets. Each left long incision wounds lined with stitches and dried pus. Flies are drawn to them. When he takes too deep of a breath, his skinny frame convulses uncontrollably, like an electric shock shooting through his insides that makes him scream in agony. He cries out for drugs that will numb the pain, but there are none.
Health officials say Palestinian children in Gaza are suffering the most from the Israel-Hamas war, as it continues through its seventh month. A child in Gaza is injured or killed every 10 minutes, according to United Nations agencies, and many are facing starvation and scant access to aid and health care.
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