Australian student allegedly shot by Israeli army has eye removed
Ranem Abu-Izneid can still feel the agony of bullet shrapnel rupturing her eye, as it did just over a month ago in the West Bank.
“Sometimes I relive the entire thing as a dream. It’s like sometimes I can even … sense the pain that I once had when it happened,” said Abu-Izneid.
Ranem Abu-Izneid and mother Rana Abu-Izneid outside the Royal Melbourne Hospital before Ranem’s eye surgery on Wednesday. Credit: Eddie Jim
The Australian citizen was studying in the Palestinian territories near Jerusalem when she was injured after an Israeli soldier allegedly shot at her student accommodation on November 15.
On Wednesday, her eye was surgically removed and replaced with a prosthetic, dashing her hopes that the sight in her right eye might be restored.
“I’ve seen more than 20 doctors in the past month, and they’ve all given me the exact same answer, and even then, I still had hope until they actually booked in my surgery,” Abu-Izneid said before the operation.
“Sometimes I feel like maybe ... once all of these procedures are done, then I’m just suddenly going to have my vision back ... it feels like a mask and I just got it on.”
Ranem Abu-Izneid and is held by her mother, Rana, after arriving in Australia last month. Credit: Wayne Taylor
The removal of her eye, and its finality, is a dire climax to a raft of medical procedures for the 20-year-old, who underwent several operations in the Middle East. But it wasn’t until she reached Australia and saw her reflection that she realised the severity of her injuries.
“Before then, I hadn’t really looked in the mirror, and when I actually did that, it felt different,” she said. “It felt like I lost something quite important.”
Speaking to this masthead en route to her surgery on Wednesday, Abu-Izneid said it had been challenging to adjust to her condition. She struggles with depth perception and dizziness, and occasionally experiences problems reading. She also suffered serious face and chest injuries from the shrapnel, some of which remains lodged in her face.
Her mother, Rana Abu-Izneid, said late on Wednesday that doctors had told her Ranem’s surgery went smoothly, but said she had yet to speak to her. She said learning that her daughter’s eye couldn’t be saved was “catastrophic news”.
Abu-Izneid, who lives in Morwell but was born in Jordan and whose family is Palestinian, was in her third year studying dentistry at Al-Quds University in Abu Dis, a non-combat zone.
As previously recounted to this masthead by family members, a witness statement from her flatmate and the university dean, it is alleged Abu-Izneid and her flatmate were studying in their fourth-floor apartment when they heard Israeli forces speaking Hebrew over a loudspeaker outside their student residential building.
Abu-Izneid was in her third year studying dentistry in the West Bank.
Her flatmate told Abu-Izneid’s family that she had approached the window to see what was happening when she saw a soldier point a gun at her and fire a shot.
The bullet pierced the metal window frame but did not hit either of the women, the flatmate told Abu-Izneid’s relatives. Instead, her flatmate said, the projectile hit the top corner of the room and exploded close to Abu-Izneid, showering her in shrapnel that embedded in her chest, face and eye.
Israeli Border Police told the ABC last month that security forces had entered Abu Dis to rescue a citizen who had been attacked there, and that rioters had thrown rocks at the forces, who responded with live fire to neutralise the danger.
To Abu-Izneid, this explanation doesn’t make sense.
“It’s mostly fake. Doesn’t add up,” she said. “If you actually take a look at the angle the bullet hit the window and how it hit the wall, you can tell that there’s something that doesn’t add up.”
The Israel Defence Forces were contacted for comment. A spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Canberra said it was looking into the matter and was “awaiting more information at this point”.
Abu-Izneid now dreams of a future in which she will be able to finish her studies and be free of pain.
“After everything that’s happened, I think that’s the least I can ask for,” she said.
Her ophthalmologist tells her that with time, the depth perception issues will fade. But in the hours leading up to surgery, the reality of her situation remained confronting.
“It’s a lot to take in and to be honest, I don’t know how to feel about that,” she said.
With Lachlan Abbott
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