Family describes dire situation in Gaza
A Medway family trapped in Gaza for nearly a month has run out of drinking water and reported Monday there was increased shelling and gunfire during the escalating war between Israel and Hamas.
Abood Okal, along with his wife Wafaa Abuzayda and their 1-year-old son Yousef Okal, were traveling in northern Gaza and visiting Abuzayda’s family when Hamas militants struck Israel Oct. 7 and killed more than 1,400.
They have been trapped in the territory for 24 days, Okal said, amid growing Israeli airstrikes and shelling in Gaza. Those strikes have killed more than 8,000 people in Gaza, the Associated Press reported, citing Gaza’s Health Ministry.
While they are living in fear of the growing war, Okal said he and his family are holding out hope they will be able to leave Gaza soon.
“We are staying hopeful that tonight will be another safe night for us,” Okal said in a recording shared with the Globe Monday. “At this point, we don’t care about how intense the bombing, as long as we come out alive in the morning.”
On Monday, Israeli tanks pushed deeper into Gaza, while airstrikes have threatened hospitals in Gaza.
The war has triggered a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as thousands of refugees flocked to southern Gaza, with limited supplies of fuel, food, water, and medicine, while aid supplies sent into the territory have been inadequate to meet their needs.
Okal said a water-filtration system they had been relying on ran out of fuel for its generator. And they have had to roam the main roads of the southern city of Rafah looking for trucks or horse-drawn carts lugging large containers of drinking water.
His family has had to stand in line for a few hours to fill a onegallon jug, he said.
“We’re hoping that it would last us for the rest of the day today, and for most of tomorrow,” Okal said Monday.
Okal and his family are in a single-family home with about 40 people, including around 10 children. Many are his loved ones, including his sister and her three kids, who are from New Jersey, along with Okal’s brother and parents.
Okal described more artillery shelling Monday, as well as what he said was “heavy caliber” gunfire.
“Our biggest fear now is that the ground invasion is eminent near the neighborhoods where we are,” he said.
He and his family have been refugees in Rafah for more than two weeks while waiting for word from the US State Department on when they and hundreds of other Americans will be allowed to cross Gaza’s border with Egypt and leave the war zone.
On Monday, the State Department’s travel advisory for Americans in Gaza warned that the war makes “identifying departure options for US citizens complex.”
“We anticipate that the situation at the Rafah crossing will remain fluid and unpredictable,” the advisory 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 conditions have been difficult for Okal and his family, but they are focused on finding a way to safety.
“It’s been 24 days, and we have been in touch with the State Department since Day 1, a few hours into the war,” Okal said. “And our frustration continues and builds up every day that we’re still stranded here and risk our lives.”