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Emirati technician who lost movement in leg now builds prosthetics for Gaza amputees
Sultan Mubarak says his own experience helps him understand what the prosthetics his team builds mean to the people who will receive them
- PUBLISHED: Sat 1 Aug 2026, 6:00 AM
Sultan Mubarak is one of a small team of technicians at the Zayed Higher Organisation for People of Determination in Abu Dhabi, several of them living with disabilities themselves, hand-building the prosthetic limbs being fitted to Palestinian amputees under Operation Chivalrous Knight 3.
Inside the workshop, Mubarak and a team of six to seven Emirati technicians spend their working days shaping sockets, taking limb measurements and running the ovens and drills needed to hand-build each prosthetic piece.
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A technician who understands the need firsthand
Mubarak, who studied mechanics before joining the workshop, is himself a person of determination. Fifteen years ago, he was in an accident that left him with a head injury and lasting effects in his left leg. "Alhamdulillah, in the end everything is fine," he said, describing how he returned to work after a period of recovery.
It is an experience, he said, that gives him a personal understanding of what the prosthetics his team builds mean to the people who will eventually receive them.
The workshop is part of the UAE's broader 'Step of Hope' programme, launched under Operation Chivalrous Knight 3 in cooperation with the International Charity Organisation, which fits upper and lower prosthetic limbs for Palestinians who lost limbs during the Gaza crisis, restoring their mobility, fostering recovery, and helping them rebuild their lives with renewed hope.
The Zayed Higher Organisation has separately been manufacturing prosthetics and mobility aids for Palestinian patients transferred to the UAE for treatment, including dozens of limbs and wheelchairs delivered to residents of the Emirates Humanitarian City.
"We just want them to complete their lives"
For Mubarak, the motivation is straightforward. He described hearing about the scale of poverty and suffering in Gaza and said contributing to the effort felt like an obligation. "They need a plastic piece to complete their limbs, families whose homes were hit by rockets," he said. "May God help them and reward whoever helps them complete their limbs and complete their lives."
The prosthetics workshop is one strand of a much larger UAE humanitarian effort in Gaza. Since Operation Chivalrous Knight 3 launched in November 2023, the initiative has aimed to rehabilitate war amputees in Gaza by manufacturing and fitting prosthetic limbs, alongside physiotherapy and medical rehabilitation services.
Just last week, the UAE Floating Hospital in Al Arish, Egypt, reported it had fitted prosthetic limbs for 51 Palestinian amputees since the Step of Hope programme began.
Emirati Journalist