Ahmed and Saleh, two amputee children from Gaza, learn to swim: ‘The water is the only place where they are free’

Ahmed al Masri closes his eyes, leans back and floats. An instructor stands beside him in a small pool, the water reaching their waists, and gradually lets go. It is the second swimming lesson for this 14-year-old Palestinian teenager, who lost his right leg in July 2025 while searching for food for his family at a time when hunger was hitting Gaza as hard as the Israeli bombardment.

“I am happy in the water. I feel increasingly confident, and I want to keep improving,” he tells EL PAÍS from Khan Younis in southern Gaza. After he was injured, the lack of medical care at a time when most hospitals were partly destroyed and overwhelmed with casualties made amputation necessary. First below the knee, and then, weeks later, above the thigh.

“It has been hard to accept. I had several operations, spent five months in a wheelchair, and now I can stand on one leg,” he says. “Swimming has changed my life. For a few hours I feel weightless, and I also leave the tent, escape the heat and the flies, and talk to people.”

The NGO Heal Palestine and the Gaza swimming school run by Amjed Tantish, who has been teaching children in Gaza to swim for more than 20 years, began organizing these classes in late July for amputee and orphaned children. The aim is to provide some relief for youngsters who have been particularly traumatized by the conflict.

“There are many kids who lost their legs or arms or saw their parents and siblings die and are suffering enormously both physically and psychologically. They are no longer children, and we want them to be children again,” Steve Sosebee, head of Heal Palestine, tells EL PAÍS. The NGO, created two and a half years ago, provides dozens of children in Gaza with education, medical and psychological care, food, and activities such as these swimming lessons and football tournaments, funded through international donations.

“The idea is that those most affected by so much destruction and death gradually overcome the trauma. The water is the only place where these children are free, where their condition weighs less heavily on them and they don’t feel their limitations,” Tantish says in a telephone interview, since Israel does not allow foreign journalists to enter Gaza.

The United Nations estimates that since October 2023, around 42,000 people in Gaza have suffered life-altering injuries, and that a quarter of them are children. According to the organization, Gaza holds the tragic world record for the highest number of child amputees relative to its population.

So far, 90 amputee and orphaned boys and girls are participating in these courses, which take place twice a week in a small pool located in the house the NGO rented as an office in Gaza. It was empty and in poor condition, but it was restored so these classes could begin. Tantish is not aware of any other pool currently operating in Gaza.

“The demand and the needs are enormous. If we had more material resources and more suitable facilities, we could reach thousands of children,” Sosebee emphasizes.

For example, during these first sessions, it has been impossible to bring children from northern Gaza to Khan Younis because of the shortage of vehicles and the extremely high cost of fuel.

“We also need maintenance supplies for the pool. Our goal is to change the water once a week using a fairly rudimentary system,” the organizers explain. Everything that enters and leaves Gaza requires Israeli authorization, and the Israeli army continues to occupy more than 50% of Gaza.

No limits

“One, two, three, go!” Tantish shouts. Two girls who lost their legs dive into the pool without hesitation, where an instructor waits for them with open arms.

Videos and photographs from the sessions capture the excitement and joy of the children as they take part in an activity unlike anything else in a Gaza left in ruins, where people continue to die every day. According to UNICEF, more than 300 children have been killed in Israeli attacks during the 300 days of the ceasefire that came into effect in October. Since October 2023, the death toll in Gaza has reached at least 73,000, more than 21,000 of them children.

For these classes, Tantish assigns his most experienced instructors: six men and six women. “If in an ordinary swimming class there are seven children per instructor, in these activities we plan for one trainer for two or three youngsters,” he says. “One of the instructors also had a leg amputated when he was a child, so he is, without doubt, the most suitable person to teach these children.”

Tantish insists that disability does not limit the children. “Everyone can learn to swim, even if they lack legs or arms,” he stresses. “After the first class, most of these children are already floating on their own, even though they started from scratch.”

Saleh al Satari is one of them. He is 14 and is living in displacement in Al-Mawasi, in southern Gaza. He was injured in an Israeli airstrike in July 2024 while returning from the market and lost his left leg. “At first I was scared, but learning to swim has changed many things in me. I feel stronger and more energetic,” he says. “In the water, I feel I regain movement. Everything is easier, lighter, and the constant fear of falling disappears.”

Gaza matters

The organizers admit that in the first classes some children had difficulty understanding instructions or repeating movements. “It has to do with what they have experienced during months of bombardment and what they continue to suffer. But we see progress in every session,” says Ibrahim Abu Jarad, of Heal Palestine. “Children often arrive with a serious, closed expression, but they get in the water and begin to regain their energy and joy,” he adds.

For eight-year-old Rahaf Abu Aathra, it is her second lesson. The girl lost a foot after being run over by a truck. “I can already put my head under water, and I am learning to float. In the water, I feel I move faster, and that helps me lose my fear,” she says.

For Tantish, the classes with amputee and orphaned children are a moment “of bliss.” “I feel fulfilled helping children feel the happiness of the water,” he says. Alongside this project, the veteran swimming instructor has managed in recent months to open several seawater pools along Gaza’s beaches. Around 1,600 children are currently attending his classes, which are funded through international donations coordinated under the Swim with Gaza initiative.

The swimming lessons for amputee and orphaned children will continue through August, September and October. The organizers are already thinking about how to extend them and how to keep using the pool in winter by heating the water. Everything will depend on funding. But Sosebee is hopeful. “The children of Gaza who die or are injured every day matter to many people. People who want to contribute and mobilize so that positive things happen in this part of the world,” he concludes.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition