MUHAMMED’S CASE

When he was just 18 years of age, Muhammed was working in Palestinian Authority as an officer of the Presidential Guard. He was living alone with his sister in the Deheisheh Refugee Camp, inside the city of Bethlehem. Most of his family remained in Gaza, the city where he was born and that he later abandoned, seeking better job prospects in the West Bank.

On November 30th 2002, he and the rest of his Presidential Guard unit were sent on a mission to Al-Khader, a city not far from Bethlehem. It had been reported that there had been shootings between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers in the area. The moment they arrived to the post and Muhammed stepped out of the car, he received a shot in his left leg. He instantly fainted.

He woke up in a Jerusalem hospital, in which he was bedridden for two months. His recovery however, took a little longer. Throughout the following years Mohammed had to endure eight surgeries and 14 months of intensive rehabilitation at the Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation (BASR).

Muhammed gradually improved, and eventually started working for the BASR as a cleaner in 2003. He married in 2004 and now has three children. He still receives regular physiotherapy sessions and check-ups at the BASR.