Kinaan Dadou, now 10, has been left disabled since 7 October 2023, when a Hamas rocket exploded beside his family home in the occupied West Bank. His parents are still struggling to find the funding needed for specialist treatment for their son.
The rocket was aimed at the Israeli settlement of Efrat but missed its target by a few hundred metres and landed in front of the Dadou home. A piece of shrapnel struck Kinaan, then seven, in the head. He stood rigid with his hands frozen at his sides, screamed « Baba! » and collapsed to the ground. An Israeli soldier who passed by promised to call an ambulance, but no help came. Kinaan's parents took him to hospital themselves. It was six hours before a doctor arrived, because of the chaos of that day, and by then Kinaan's brain was haemorrhaging.
The family's struggle to secure care has continued in the years since. The Guardian's reporting frames the case as a fight for treatment that the family cannot afford on its own, with the boy's condition leaving him disabled. The account centres on the family's efforts and the gap between the injury and the support available to them.
The case highlights how a single missed rocket strike in a contested area can leave a child with lasting harm, long after the initial attack. For the Dadou family, the question of who pays for ongoing specialist care remains unresolved, and their experience illustrates the human cost of the conflict for civilians on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide.