My cousin Ahmad was nine years old when he suffered a severe head injury in Gaza. A year ago, a missile hit the house next to ours in Nuseirat. The explosion was so violent that it pushed Ahmad off the third-floor staircase of our building. He fell badly on his head, shattering his skull.

We carried him to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the doctors fought for his life. There were moments when the heart monitor barely registered a heartbeat. We all thought we had lost him forever, but Ahmad, with the stubbornness he was known for, challenged death itself.

He survived. Two days later, he was transferred to the European Hospital, where doctors operated to stop the bleeding in his brain and removed roughly one-third of his skull to reduce the pressure. He spent two weeks in the intensive ca

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