The King Hussein Cancer Center is huge and gleaming, with steel beams and floor-to-ceiling windows. Cozy cafes and stocked snack machines dot the air-conditioned lobby. It's a stark contrast to conditions in Gaza, from where dozens of its latest patients have come.

"We couldn't find food and wherever we went there were airstrikes," says Safa Salha, who spent months going from damaged hospital to damaged hospital, seeking treatment for her 16-year-old son Youssef.

Youssef, a tall, quiet teenager who lets his mother do most of the talking, was in 10th grade before the war between Israel and Hamas started in October 2023 and shut down all the schools.

Last year, he was operated on in Gaza for a brain tumor pressing down on his optic nerve. His mother says the hospital was unable to do MRI scans before the surgery and couldn't conduct a biopsy. Surgeons removed as much of the tumor as they could and sent him home two days later because they needed the bed, his mother says.