Israeli Woman Marks 50th Birthday by Donating Kidney to Palestinian Boy

For her 50^th birthday, a woman from northern Israel decided to give a gift to someone else. Idit Harel Segal of Eshhar donated a kidney to a stranger, and that stranger was a 3-year-old boy from the Gaza Strip, The Associated Press reported. The donation last month came several weeks after the cross-border violence between Israel and Hamas in Gaza that left at least 260 Palestinians and 13 people in Israel dead. Segal’s husband, oldest son and father – whose own parents were killed in a Palestinian attack – were opposed to her altruistic gift, though they have since come around. Matnat Chaim, a nongovernmental organization in Jerusalem, coordinated the exchange, in which Segal donated her kidney to the boy, and the boy’s father donated his kidney to an Israeli mother of two. Segal says she remains in contact with the boy’s parents.