Gaza Herald— Losing both legs during the war changed Mahmoud Abdel Karim Skaik’s life, but it did not take away his determination to provide for his family or build a future.
Before his injury, Skaik worked in construction and relied on his income to support his children. He was injured on November 7, 2023, and underwent a double amputation. The injury not only took away his mobility but also ended his ability to continue working in the profession that had supported his family.
For Skeik, the loss of his livelihood has become one of the hardest parts of his new reality.
“The biggest pain is not only losing my legs. It is stopping my life and being unable to work for my children,” he says.
He says people with disabilities, particularly those injured during the war, face severe shortages of essential services and support, leaving them among the most marginalized groups amid Gaza’s worsening conditions.
“When it comes to income, I have nothing”
Since losing his source of income, Skaik has struggled to provide even basic necessities for his family.
“When it comes to income, I have nothing,” he says, describing the daily challenge of securing food and water for his children.
At times, he has been forced to sell some of his belongings to cover household expenses.
The financial hardship also means that many things his children see in the markets remain beyond their reach.
“When my children and I see something we want to buy but cannot afford, I tell them, ‘We will find it in heaven,’” he says, adding that there are things he would like to have for himself as well.
Turning a hobby into a lifeline
Amid these difficulties, Skaik found a way to remain active and productive through agriculture.
Using whatever small spaces, containers, tools and seedlings he can find, he has turned his hobby of growing plants into a modest agricultural project.
“I plant whatever I can provide in terms of seedlings and resources,” he says, describing his efforts to transform limited materials into something capable of producing food and giving him a sense of purpose.
Skaik currently grows green peppers, carefully tending to the plants as they begin producing small fruits.
The work requires continued care, water and agricultural treatments—resources that are difficult to obtain under Gaza’s current conditions.
“Making something out of nothing”
Skaik says a lack of outside support has prevented him from developing his agricultural project further.
With financial assistance, tools and agricultural supplies, he believes he could expand the small initiative and make better use of the limited space available to him.
For now, however, the garden represents more than a potential source of income.
It has become a way for Skaik to reclaim part of the independence the war took from him.
Despite losing both legs and his previous livelihood, he continues to look for ways to work, produce and care for his family.
A message of hope
Skeik has a message for people with disabilities and those wounded during the war: an injury does not have to mark the end of life.
He encourages others not to surrender to despair but to look for new ways to use whatever abilities and resources remain.
His small garden is his answer to that challenge: an attempt to make something out of almost nothing and to prove that disability can change how a person lives without taking away the will to continue.
