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.
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 on Oct. 7.
Despite assurances from federal and state leaders that an evacuation plan is in the works, the Medway family is still waiting.
According to friend Sammy Nabulsi, they had their hopes up only to be let down yet again. Nabulsi says the family was told for a fourth time in two weeks that they would be permitted to cross through the Rafah border. After waiting for hours, they still weren't allowed to cross.
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"It's extremely deflating, the family is besides themselves," Nabulsi said. "He frankly has given up on the United States government because he believes the United States government has given up on his family. Remember they're American citizens and the government hasn't just given up on them, they've given up on the other 500-600 American citizens sitting in Gaza."
Nabulsi says they watched as a limited number of trucks carrying humanitarian aid passed through into Gaza.
President Joe Biden released a statement saying they will "continue to work around the clock, in partnership with Egypt and Israel, to facilitate the ability of U.S. citizens and their immediate family members to exit Gaza safely and travel via Egypt to their final destinations."
Most recently, Nabulsi says his friends told them they ran out of clean drinking water and were drinking salt water for nearly an entire day.
"They're very worried about their basic necessities, the ability to find food, the ability to get clean drinking water, the ability to get fuel to be able to get around, just the ability to live."
With no clear timeline on when they'll be able to get out, he says the family from Medway is now preparing for the long haul.
"Abood told me the airstrikes in Rafah in the town they're in, presumably all of the other American citizens who wish to leave Gaza are also located, the airstrikes are intensifying in frequency, they're getting worse," he said.
"We are barreling towards a grave national tragedy, and the White House and the State Department do not seem to care."
Nabulsi says an online petition has been started for this family and all of the other American citizens that are trapped in Gaza to prioritize their safe return. At last check, it had more than 13,000 signatures.
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 said 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.
“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.
