At Cairo Hospital, Injured Palestinians Increasingly Voice Support for Hamas

Ramadan Khalid arrives at Nasser hospital on Dec. 30 after Israeli missiles struck a mosque where he was praying. He went to Gaza's overwhelmed Shifa Hospital but was transferred. (By Amr Nabil -- Associated Press)

"God bless you," she said, before drifting out the door.

Herez, 37, flashed a feeble smile and placed the rose on his pillow, next to his head. His spine is broken. So is his right leg, framed in a metal brace. He's been given antibiotics and painkillers. An operation is next on the list.

"This is God's destiny," he said. "That is why I am here."

On Dec. 27, Herez was working in a Hamas security building. A missile struck the building, killing more than 15 "brethren," he said. He was buried under the rubble. Before he blacked out, he could hear rescuers searching for survivors. When he woke up, he was at Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in Gaza. But they had neither the medicines nor the expertise to help him. So they put him in an ambulance and drove him eight hours to Egypt.

"Now I am away from my wife and children," Herez said. "I am concerned and upset, but there's nothing I can do."

A radio crackled next to his bed, tuned to the news. Before the offensive, he said, he was "ready and waiting" to fight the Israelis. "If I were not here, I would be fighting them, God willing."

When he returns, he will do exactly that, he said, even if he can no longer carry a weapon. "I will send food to the jihadists. But of course, God will praise you more if you can carry a weapon."

'I Will Carry a Weapon Again'

As his father watched, Alaa Mustafa Saad hobbled to his bed. His kneecaps were bandaged. The 13-year-old had been near a police station when it was struck by an Israeli missile, spitting shrapnel into his legs.

Soon, his 7-year-old brother, Dhia, will join him: Three days ago, Dhia was playing on the roof when a tank shell hit it, killing his cousin and injuring him, explained the boys' father, Mustafa.

Mustafa said he was glad his sons were here. "Here, it is far away from the rockets. Here, it is easy for him to be a child. Back in Gaza, he can't do this."

Near Alaa's pillow sat a pink stuffed rabbit, a gift from an Egyptian visitor. Alaa has named it Yasser after the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. But the gifts have done little to soothe his anger.

When he returns to Gaza, he said, he wants to fight and "liberate Jerusalem."