Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, a family from Medway, Massachusetts, has been pleading for help getting out of Gaza and returning home.
Despite assurances from federal and state leaders that an evacuation plan is in the works, they are still waiting. Abood Okal and Wafaa Abuzayda were visiting family in northern Gaza with their 1-year-old son, Yousef, when Hamas launched a surprise attack in Israel.
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With Gaza under siege, Okal spoke with NBC10 Boston about his family's current situation after close to two weeks stuck near the border.
Okal says resources are limited, and everything his family does now needs to be strategic, from the amount of water they drink to risking going out to find food, to using the fuel they need to get to the border crossing with Egypt, the only land path out of Gaza that doesn't go into Israel. He says they are in survival mode as the fighting reaches closer to them.
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“Yesterday we went for a food supply run, my brother and I, which is a risky errand to run and while we were at the market trying to shop as fast as we can to pick up whatever supplies we could find, there were three bombings via air strikes that happened nearby that were so close that we basically thought about OK, we’ve already made the trip one way, do we turn back now and basically go home or do we continue to find food and this way it’s not in vain, this risky exposure that we took and that’s all we decided to do because otherwise we would have no food at home,” said Okal.
“Running for food supply has to be a strategic run, drinking water has to be a very strategic decision, bathing or taking a shower is a leisure nowadays, we also have to be very strategic in how we use our very little power supply that we have because it could be what separates you from life or death.”
For the past week, Okal and his family, including young children, have been waiting near the Egyptian border, growing increasingly frustrated with the miscommunication and inability to evacuate American citizens from Gaza.
"We’ve been told by the state department twice to head to the Rafah crossing as it would be open and we would be able to cross and twice we’ve gone and waited for 10 hours, eight hours, in the sun, in open borders, open air, with war planes flying over to find out the crossing never opened," he said.
Okal said on Thursday an airstrike dropped a bomb within 100 meters of the house where they are sheltering with 40 people.
"Glass shattered the walls of the house cracked. Doors popped out of frame. It was so close by that we thought this was supposed to be a safe zone but that’s not the case."
He said he hoped that President Biden's visit with Israel's prime minister would bring an evacuation plan for Americans in Gaza, but the president did not speak publicly about any evacuation plans.
"We feel abandoned. We feel this is not fair, we feel like the U.S. with all its mighty influence can actually get us home, yet we are not seeing that translate on the ground," he said. "We feel like if we were U.S. citizens, Americans on the other side of the border in Israel a lot more attention would have been given to us."
Okal is with his wife and 1-year-old son. Over the past few days, he said his son had a fever and an ear infection. He said they had to scramble to a few different pharmacies to find antibiotics. Thankfully, he said the boy is feeling better, but the circumstances paint a picture of the humanitarian crisis underway.
During a press briefing Thursday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Ambassador David Satterfield, who was appointed as the special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues, met with officials from Israel and Egypt to negotiate the implementation of an agreement to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza and as the Rafah border crossing is opened, to get American citizens out. He said details are expected in the coming days but he could not specify when.
