Jamil with his mother outside Naples.
Jamil Annajar is a Palestinian boy from Khan Younis, Gaza. He was received and treated in Naples at Santobono-Pausilpon Hospital for a bone marrow transplant, a procedure that saved his life. Jamil arrived on June 24, 2017 and has been undergoing treatment for six long years. Together with his mother, he left Naples in December 2022, but we always kept in touch to follow his treatment path.
Jamil and his family have lived through the horror of the current bombings and have been forced to flee from one place to another, like much of the population of Gaza. In one of the first Israeli attacks on Gaza, he simultaneously lost about 30 members from his family.
There followed a period when we lost contact, from December until last week, when we feared the worst.
The family had been forced to flee to Rafah as their home was destroyed, and the difficulty of internet communication, due to Israeli blockades had prevented us from hearing from them. Unfortunately, this morning Jamil’s Aunt contacted us, revealing that at dawn today Israeli soldiers were demolishing and razing the destroyed houses with diggers to make way for their vehicles. They found Jamil and family hiding in the remaining corner of the house. Jamil, his brother, father and two cousins were seized, blindfolded and stripped naked, then taken away. We do not know where. Unfortunately, no one knows their fate.
Only the mother is left.
Jamil is a frail and sickly boy, dependent on medication to survive. The story of Jamil and his family is emblematic of the suffering of an entire population that suffers continuous human rights violations. We launch an appeal from our city to citizens of the world, institutions, and in particular the Campania Region of Italy, which made Jamil’s treatment possible. We also call for the intervention of the national and international Red Cross.
