Photo by
Yoav Dudkevich/TPS-IL on 22 April, 2025
8-Year-Old Bedouin Girl Discharged From Rehab One Year After Iranian Missile Strike
Jerusalem, 22 April, 2025 (TPS-IL) -- One year after being severely injured by shrapnel during an Iranian missile barrage, an eight-year-old girl was discharged on Tuesday from the Israeli hospital where was rehabilitating.
Amina Hassouna, from an unrecognized Bedouin village in the Negev, was injured when debris from an intercepted missile landed on her home on April 14, 2024. The strike was Iran’s first direct attack on Israeli territory.
The Regional Council for the Unrecognized Bedouin Villages confirmed her release from Tel Hashomer’s rehabilitation department, though she remains physically impaired. Amina was initially treated at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, where doctors performed multiple neurosurgeries to stabilize her. She was later transferred to Tel Hashomer for extended rehabilitation.
“She remembers everything. She talks, she laughs—but her body won’t listen,” said her father, Mohammed. He said Amina has lost all mobility in her left arm and can only walk with difficulty, dragging her left leg behind her.
The unrecognized village al Fura, near Beer-Sheva, lacks bomb shelters and is not covered by the Iron Dome missile defense system, which prioritizes mapped urban areas.
“We had nowhere to go,” said Mohammed. “No protection, no warning—nothing.”
A demolition order issued for the family’s home in May 2024 was later canceled following a public backlash.
Because her family’s home is not accessible, Hassouna will be now living in a rented apartment in Arad with her parents and 13 siblings, supported by the National Insurance Institute.
Of the 320 drones and missiles launched in the barrage, 99% were shot down by American, British and Jordanian forces or by Israeli air defense systems.
