By Jana Choukeir

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Six-year-old Omar Abu Kuwaik still believes that by his next birthday, his missing hand will have grown back.

He is one of thousands of Palestinian children who have lost limbs and loved ones in Israel's bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip.

"It'll be big again when I turn seven", he tells his aunt, softly rubbing his left arm, which ends just below his elbow.

Omar was the lone survivor of an Israeli airstrike that flattened his grandparents' home in Gaza in December 2023, killing his parents, sister and extended family.

He is among a small group of Gazan families who arrived in the Lebanese capital Beirut earlier this month for medical treatment.

His aunt Maha Abu Kuwaik says he now calls her "mama".

"He's scared of everything now - sleep, doctors, any loud sound. He asks me not to be sad. 'Smile, Mama,' he says. 'I don't like it when people cry'", she told Reuters, her voice cracking.

Omar was pulled from the rubble with severe burns, a shattered leg, and his left hand already severed........

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