Young Israeli Girl Injured in Iranian Missile Attack Released From Rehab

Doctors have released from rehabilitation Amina Al-Hassouni, an 8-year-old Bedouin girl from the village of Al-Fura’a who was seriously injured in the April 13, 2024, Iranian missile and drone strike on Israel, the Islamist regime’s first direct attack on the Jewish state.

Israeli media reported on Tuesday on Al-Hassouni’s release, which followed about a year of recovery.

Shrapnel from an Israeli interceptor missile struck Al-Hassouni in her head during the attack, resulting in six weeks of a medically induced coma, multiple surgeries, and more than three months’ recovery at Beersheva’s Soroka Medical Center before starting her rehabilitation in July 2024.

Dr. Miki Gideon, head of the hospital’s pediatric neurosurgery department, operated on Al-Hassouni and described her injury as “severe, complex, and devastating.” He said at the time that “to see Amina today — fully conscious, communicating, smiling, and ready for the next step in her rehabilitation — fills our hearts with hope and strengthens our hands.”

The April attack by Iran included a barrage of more than 300 missiles and drones, almost all of which Israel intercepted, leaving Al-Hassouni as the only injury. US forces used warships in the eastern Mediterranean Sea to shoot down some of the projectiles, including more than 70 drones and at least three missiles. US fighter jets also shot down drones.

“When Amina was admitted to the unit that Saturday night, it was hard to believe that the small and fragile girl actually survived her severe injury,” Dr. Isaac Lazar, director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Soroka University Medical Center, said when she began her rehabilitation. “Much thanks go to the multi-professional team that treated her with great dedication and professionalism, but mostly thanks to Amina’s strength, her desire to live and recover, and her family members, who never left her bed side during the long and difficult days of hospitalization.”

Lazar added, “We were delighted to see Amina recover and get stronger until today, when she is moving to the rehabilitation ward. Amina, whose injury was so severe that we highly doubted whether she would survive, taught us what a war for life is. Her mother, father, and brother, who did not give up, stayed with her day and night and continued to talk, hug and demand from her that she get better, got Amina back.”

The girl’s father Mohammed blamed Israeli policy impeding the building of shelters in their officially unrecognized Bedouin community for his daughter’s injury. Mohammed said that Israel destroys “anything we build to protect ourselves from danger” and that he thought “if we were treated as citizens and had access to a shelter, my daughter would not be in the intensive care unit right now.”

Iran’s attack in April came in response to a suspected Israeli strike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus, Syria. The operation killed seven members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a military force and internationally designated terrorist organization, including two senior commanders. One of the commanders allegedly helped plan the Hamas terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.

The operation to defend Israel from the Iranian attack involved close coordination with the US. “An American officer sits in the control room of the Arrow weapons system and essentially conducts the coordination with the US systems, shoulder-to-shoulder,” Moshe Patel, director of missile defense at Israel’s Defense Ministry, said at the time.

“The Iranian threat met the aerial and technological superiority of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], along with a strong fighting coalition,” IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said following the attack, noting that “99 percent of the threats launched towards Israeli territory were intercepted — a very significant strategic achievement” — and that “of approximately 170 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that Iran launched, zero crossed into Israeli territory.”

Referencing the injuries sustained by Al-Hassouni, Hagari said at the time that “we wish her a speedy recovery.” He added that “Iran committed a very serious act tonight, pushing the Middle East towards escalation. We are doing and will do everything necessary to protect the security of the civilians of the State of Israel.”

More than one year after Iran’s unprecedented aerial attack, US President Donald Trump’s administration has begun negotiations with the theocratic regime in Tehran, aiming to derail the development of nuclear weapons by a state that has vowed to destroy Israel and spent billions supporting terrorist groups working toward that goal. Last month, Iran revealed the construction of a new underground missile launching facility.

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