Medway family on a ‘desperate hunt for food and water’
Waiting to flee Gaza into Egypt
‘They also told me they stood in a line for six hours today just to get some bread to eat.’
SAMMY NABULSI
Boston attorney and a friend of the Medway family, who had traveled to Gaza to visit Wafaa’s parents when war broke out between Israel and Hamas
A Medway family trapped in Gaza since war broke out between Israel and Hamas was “on a desperate hunt for food and water” Sunday as they remained stranded near the Rafah crossing waiting to pass into Egypt, according to a family friend.
Abook Okal and his wife, Wafaa Abuzayda, and their 1year-old son, Yousef, have been sheltering in Rafah for two weeks since they fled to southern Gaza as Israeli forces bombarded the territory.
Sammy Nabulsi, a Boston attorney and a family friend who has maintained regular contact with them, has been calling on US officials to ensure a safe escape for them and other US citizens.
Nabulsi said he received an update from the family on Sunday and they are “starving and going thirsty.”
“They have ran out of both clean drinking water and their back-up salt water today, and have been on the hunt for water,” Nabulsi said in a message to the Globe. “They also told me they stood in a line for six hours today just to get some bread to eat.”
The Okals traveled to Gaza to visit Wafaa’s parents and introduce them to their grandson when Hamas launched its brutal Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel that killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 200 hostage.
The death toll among Palestinians rose to more than 8,000 on Sunday, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Israeli forces over the weekend increased their ground attack with tanks and infantry moving into the territory as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel announced the war has entered a “second stage.”
The family has been in touch with the US Department of State, which has instructed them and other US citizens to attempt to cross the border into Egypt several times, but they have not been allowed to pass through.
During a press conference last week, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said there has been no one from Hamas on the Gaza side of the border “to open the gates and process people and let them through.”
An alert posted on the State Department’s website Sunday said the “military conflict between Israel and Hamas is ongoing, making identifying departure options for US citizens complex.”
“We anticipate that the situation at the Rafah crossing will remain fluid and unpredictable,” the alert said. “If you assess it to be safe, you may wish to move closer to the Rafah border crossing — there may be very little notice if the crossing opens, and it may only open for a limited time.”
The family has been staying in a home about 10 minutes from the Rafah border, sheltering with about 40 other people, including children, Abood Okal said in an audio recording he shared with the Globe.
Abood Okal reported on Thursday that three airstrikes fell within 900 feet of their shelter, according to Nabulsi, who chronicled the family’s struggle in Gaza in an opinion piece for MSNBC on Sunday. Another recent airstrike blew out the windows and doors where they are staying.
In the piece for MSNBC, Nabulsi said the family has run out of milk for their baby.