'We're not afraid': Gaza boy tells of miracle survival after losing leg in blast
ITV News Correspondent Lucy Watson met with 12 year-old Abdallah Kehil whose leg was saved from amputation after a rocket landed in front of his school. He continues with bravery and undiminished dreams to become a model.
The war in Gaza has continued for nearly 11 months, and throughout that time we have heard often about how it has affected its children - who make up half of the territory's population.
They are experiencing death and destruction daily, and quite often, witnessing the unimaginable.
Recently, I went to Egypt to report on desperately ill Palestinians who, until May, were allowed to leave Gaza to go to Egypt, and elsewhere, for medical treatment.
On our last day of filming in Cairo, we were at the Nasser Institute Hospital talking to cancer patients and their doctors.
Throughout the day, unbeknownst to us, we were being watched. It was only when we started to pack up did the curious 12 year old observer make himself known.
His name was Abdallah Kehil, and his resilience and bravery astounded us, but not only us, the Egyptian president too.
As he moved along the corridors of the hospital ward in his wheelchair, Abdallah had an undeniable popularity and presence.
The other children adored him. He smiled often and they followed him like the Pied Piper. But, Abdallah's smile hid horrors no 12 year old should ever see. He wanted to share his own story, about a school day in November.
"We were bombed, a rocket hit us in front of our school," he said.
"We were sitting down and suddenly the missile struck us. My leg was blown off. My friends' bodies were scattered."
Abdallah crawled along the ground away from the devastation. Medics found him and carried him to hospital where he had to fight for his own life. He'd lost every one of his friends.
Once his condition stabilised, he made a video from his hospital bed in Gaza and put it online, asking the Egyptian president to save his leg.
Just days later, Abdallah and his mum were rescued. Their evacuation was shown on Egyptian state television, as he was moved from ambulance to ambulance, hospital to hospital, until he reached Cairo, and the Nasser Institute, where surgeons were waiting.
He explained to me what they did to fix his leg.
"They took a muscle from my back and skin from my thigh, to repair my other leg. They put it back together as new," he said.
In January, he was invited by President Abdul Fattah El Sisi to a national event at Cairo's New Capital Theatre. It was there - on stage - that Abdallah said to the audience, "I wish I could hug the President."
At that point, El Sisi walked up on stage and hugged him. His survival defies belief, but so too does his spirit.
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"We are strong. We're brave. We are not afraid," he said.
I am famous now, he said to me. Abdallah is indeed famous, but he plans to be more so.
He will walk again and wants to be a model and, having faced what he's faced and overcome it, few can doubt him.
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