An inspiring scene unfolded at O'Hare International Airport on Monday as a massive crowd welcomed several children who were injured in Gaza.
The group of young Palestinian survivors was brought to the U.S. as part of the largest medical evacuation of kids from Gaza.
"Only a week and a half ago, they were in Gaza, now to a new country," said Tareq Hailat, of the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund, which organized the mission. "So aside from physical damage they have, they need medical treatment for, they also have cultural differences they have to be accustomed to as well as PTSD and mental help they need."
Eight children, each accompanied by a family member, arrived for lifesaving surgeries and medical equipment at Shriner's Hospitals in the U.S.
"This is a drop in the ocean," Hailat said. "There are thousands of children that need medical care and there needs to be a better system to allow us to take these children out."
Some have waited months - others for over a year.
"I was told by his mother that she saw her own daughter killed in front of her," Hailat said, describing one family's story. "[An] air strike hit her and all she saw was body parts of [her] child hit across the wall. The youngest son saw the incident and now he’s mute. Cannot say a single word, and she had to leave them behind to receive the medical treatment the complexities that go with - should I take my children to receive medical treatment?"
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One child who already received medical care, 3-year-old Jood, has been in the U.S. with his father and host family since March. On Monday, they came to welcome the new children at O'Hare’s Terminal 5.
"Seeing him now he got the right medical care he needed," Belal Muhammad, host father and a UFC welterweight champion, said. "It’s the least we could do, right? For these families, where they’re coming from, this is heaven to them."
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Belal, like so many others, said he hopes to help more.
"This is the life a kid should have, we all should be living," he said. "All should be experiencing... this."
While some children are staying with their host families in Chicago, others will go to cities such as Portland and Sacramento.
