‘Abeer ‘Abdel Jaleel al-Ghalban (32), married and resident of al-Zawaydah, central Gaza Strip, has a family of 9.
On Day 1 of the war on Gaza, 07 October 2023, When the Israeli occupation forces bombed a house next to our house, we had to evacuate to al-Sawarhah, western al-Nussairat refugee camp, where my in-laws live, fearing for my 9-year-old daughter, Islam Khaled Mohammed al-Ghalban, who suffers from kidney failure.
As the hard days pass and bombings and forced displacement intensify, the number of displaced persons has increased and the number of patients and persons injured has risen at hospitals, finding it extremely difficult to get treatment for my daughter as well as my husband who suffers from cancer. Moreover, my ex-husband died from kidney failure so I am afraid for my daughter.
The real suffering started with limitted access to treatment and dialysis sessions for my daughter due to the high number of patients, particularly kidney patients, who evacuated to Deir al-Balah, decreasing the sessions to twice a week for 2 hours instead of 4 times a week for 4 hours. Thus, her health deteriorated, she cannot walk anymore and her regular blood tests get worse day by day as her hemoglobin level is 4 now comparing to 9 before the war. She needs an ambulance or a car to take her to the hospital for dialysis; however, I take her on a donkey cart due to lack of transportation and pay 50 shekels each time.
Due to the war, the price of my daughter’s treatment and medicine has increased, costing me 90 shekels instead of 40 before the war. She also needs 1000 shekels as weekly expenses struggling to secure money for her.
Moreover, food and beverage prices have dramatically increased as we buy bottled water and preservative free food, which are very expensive. For example, before the war, you could buy a carton of eggs with 15 shekels but now it costs you 65 shekels. Ditto price of other commodities that has increased several times.
I call on all humanitarian relief and healthcare organizations to help me referr my daughter’s treatment abroad as her health get worse day by day.
