"The hardest part is when he goes to sleep and asks about his mother."
With these words, Mahmoud Kuhail (28) sums up what remains of his life after the war: a father raising his young son, Kinan, while carrying two losses that changed everything — the death of his wife and the loss of his left leg.
Before the war, Mahmoud's life revolved around simple things. In Tel Al-Hawa, west of Gaza City, he lived with his wife, Shahd Al-Qasim, and their son Kinan, who was born in 2022. He remembers those days as if they belonged to another life.
"I would come home from work and find him sleeping next to his mother… it felt like everything was okay."
When the war began, daily life turned into a constant search for safety. The family moved from one place to another across Gaza, carrying only what they could and leaving whenever the bombardment drew closer.
"We would take a few clothes and some food and move again… it felt like we were running from our own shadow."
As the months passed, it wasn't only the airstrikes that weighed on the family. His wife's health began to deteriorate, until she was diagnosed with advanced-stage lung cancer. With no real opportunity for treatment or travel, she passed away shortly after the diagnosis.
"I couldn't believe it. I wanted to see her, to say goodbye… but even that wasn't possible."
Suddenly, Mahmoud found himself facing a reality he had never imagined: a young child who had lost his mother, and a father trying to fill a space he knew could never truly be filled.
Despite the loss, he returned to work clearing rubble and opening roads for displaced families. It was more than a job — it was a way to keep going in a city whose landscape seemed to change every day.
Then, in early 2025, while working in Shuja'iyya, he was injured in an attack. When he woke up in the hospital, his left leg had been amputated.
"The moment they told me my leg had been amputated… it felt like the world stopped."
Months of treatment and rehabilitation followed. He learned how to stand again, how to walk with a prosthetic leg, and how to adapt to a life he had never expected to live.
"The first time I stood on the prosthetic, I felt like I was coming back to life… but not the same life."
Today, Mahmoud has returned to work and to the routines of raising Kinan, trying to balance responsibility, grief, and survival. But more than the injury itself, there is one thing that weighs on him the most.
"The hardest part is when he asks about his mother before going to sleep. I don't know what to tell him except that she's with God."
Despite everything he has lost, Mahmoud still gets up every morning for one reason: to make sure Kinan grows up knowing that someone is still there for him, even after everything they have been through.
