LONDON: Almost two years after capturing the iconic image of Nada Jwaifel that became one of Time magazine’s Top 10 photos of 2023, Palestinian journalist Motaz Azaiza has reunited with the young woman who was pulled from the rubble of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
Azaiza met Jwaifel, 19, this week in Washington D.C., where she is receiving medical treatment.
The photo, which showed her trapped under the rubble of her destroyed home at Al-Nuseirat refugee camp, helped spark the global outpouring of support and mobilize the urgent medical intervention that saved her life.
Azaiza had been documenting the work of Gaza’s Civil Defense teams in late October 2023 when he found Jwaifel buried beneath the remains of an eight-story building flattened by an Israeli airstrike. Seven of her siblings and her grandmother were killed in the attack.
“It was the light from my camera flash that discovered her,” Azaiza said in an earlier Instagram post.
Jwaifel was critically injured, with her legs pinned under concrete. Doctors had warned that immediate amputation would be necessary unless urgent treatment was secured.
When the photo gained global attention, the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund quickly launched efforts to evacuate her for treatment abroad.
Following 75 surgeries across four countries, Jwaifel eventually underwent a complex 16-hour nerve and muscle transplant at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US that saved her legs from amputation.
“It’s painful to be in her place. It’s painful to see her,” Azaiza said in a previous interview with Time magazine.
“She’s so lucky she survived. What about people who, there was no hole for me to see them and they (were) still stuck under the rubble and they passed with no help.”
Now able to walk again, Jwaifel joined Azaiza at a PCRF event in Washington, where she spoke of her journey.
“Israel might have taken everything precious to me — my family, my home, my peace — but it will never never break my spirit, as long as I can breathe.”
