Eman Tayseer ‘Awad Ghabboun (33), married with three children, resident of Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip, and currently displaced in Deir al-Balah.
13 November 2024
I am married to Ibrahim Jamil ‘Asi Ghabboun, who was released from Israeli prisons on 04 November 2023 via the Kerem Shalom Crossing in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, after being arrested by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) from his workplace in Rahat, Israel on 19 October 2023, noting that he had a work permit. While in Israeli Prisons, my husband suffered torments of detention, torture and insults.
I have three children: Jamil (12), Majd (8), and Ameer (4) and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl whom I named Rahma, but she died when I delivered her. I lived in my in-laws’ four-story house, which was later leveled to the ground after being bombed by the IOF.
When the Israeli war started on the Gaza Strip on 07 October 2023, I was at home preparing my children, Jamil and Majd, for school. Suddenly, IOF warplanes violently launched airstrikes across Gaza and northern Gaza governorates, enticing fear among us, particularly the children. We stayed home for about one week, but the situation got worse, as IOF’s warplanes dropped leaflets on our residential area ordering us to evacuate. We also received phone calls from Israeli officers threatening us to be targeted if we did not leave our houses.
As my husband was at his work in Israel and I was alone with my children, his family decided to evacuate the house. My children, my in-laws, and I sought refuge in the Indonesian Hospital in the al-Sheikh Zayed area, north of the Gaza Strip, where we stayed for about a month. We heard the sounds of intense bombing and artillery shells raining down around us and witnessed a large influx of injured people flooding to the hospital, especially children and women, after their homes had been targeted. On 20 November 2023, the IOF began surrounding and besieging the hospital from all directions. Early that day, we left the hospital before it was surrounded and sought refuge in my sister-in-law’s house on Abu Zaytoun Street in Jabalia refugee camp. We stayed there for three days until the humanitarian truce was declared on 24 November 2023. Later, I learned that my husband had been arrested by the IOF from his workplace in Rahat City on 19 October 2023. He was released after about 16 days to the southern Gaza Strip via Kerem Shalom Crossing. During his detention in ‘Ofer Prison, my husband was interrogated, severely tortured, kicked, and brutally beaten in the face and chest, as he told us in a phone call.
Following the end of the humanitarian truce on 01 December 2023, the IOF heavily fired teargas canisters and indiscriminate shells in the area, forcing us to leave and seek refuge in my aunt’s house near Kamal ‘Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia Housing Project. A few days later, the 4-story house of our relatives, the ‘Assaf family, located opposite my aunt’s house, was bombed and completely destroyed. The targeted house was crammed with many displaced women, children, and men. About 36 people were killed in that bombing, including my relatives, my aunts, and my mother-in-law. Also, my three children sustained various injuries all over their bodies. Among those killed were: my mother-in-law, Rahma ‘Awad Hasan ‘Assaf (65); her sister Fadwa ‘Awad Hasan ‘Assaf (60); Missa Rafeeq ‘Assaf (35); Liliaa ‘Alaa ‘Assaf (4 months); Rami ‘Alaa ‘Assaf (17); Marah Waleed ‘Assaf (12); Eleen Waleed ‘Assaf (8); Riyad Waleed ‘Assaf (5); Toleen Waleed ‘Assaf ( 1.5 years); Mohammed Riyad ‘Assaf (32); Ansam al-Hamalawi (32); Adam Mohammed ‘Assaf (1.5 years); Ashraf Riyad ‘Assaf (27); Nedaa’ Ra’fat ‘Assaf (20); Kenan Ashraf ‘Assaf (1 year); Heba Riyad ‘Assaf (37); Shatha Shadi ‘Assaf (15); Ritaj Shadi ‘Assaf (14); and Mohammed Shadi ‘Assaf (7).
After the area we sought refuge in was targeted, we decided to leave and seek shelter in Kamal ‘Adwan Hospital, as we had no other place to go, and I was in the third trimester of my pregnancy. On 03 December 2023, the IOF surrounded Kamal ‘Adwan Hospital, and we remained trapped there for 15 days. We had to sleep on the floor of the hospital’s corridors because we couldn’t take any of our belongings or necessities after the house opposite my aunt’s house was bombed. The bombing severely damaged my aunt’s house, forcing us to flee in search of safety. We slept on the floor without blankets or mattresses, and there was no food or water in the hospital, which was overcrowded with displaced people. When we were trapped in Kamal ‘Adwan Hospital, I was trying to find treatment for my son Majd (8), who suffers from glycogen storage inborn disease (GSD). Majd had been receiving treatment at Sheba Tel-Hashomer Medical Center in Israel since his birth, and his medications, which were unavailable in the Gaza Strip, were provided by the hospital.
When famine spread across the Gaza Strip, Majd’s health began to deteriorate, as he required healthy food, mineral water, and proper personal hygiene to avoid contracting diseases. Unfortunately, all of these were unavailable at Kamal ‘Adwan Hospital after it was completely besieged by the IOF, who denied the entry of medications, medical supplies, or any other supplies to the hospital. After 15 days of being trapped inside the hospital, IOF ordered all men, including my relatives, brothers, and male nurses, to leave, while women and children were left behind in the hospital without food or water for three days. After we were forced to leave, my children and I went to my family, who sought refuge in al-Fouqa School in Jabalia refugee camp. Upon arriving there, I was informed that IOF had killed my brother Ibrahim Tayseer ‘Awad ‘Assaf (38) after ordering all the men to leave the school. They shot him in his back, killing him immediately. Additionally, my other brother, Mohammed Tayseer ‘Awad (40) was arrested by the IOF.
We stayed at al-Fouqa School for about 35 days enduring a severe shortage of food and water, as well as the overcrowding of displaced people. Fear and worry engulfed me as I was seeing my sick son Majd’s deteriorating health. We left the school in mid-January 2024 and sought refuge at al-Kuwait School near the Indonesian Hospital. While at school, famine started spreading with only scare food, water, and flour available amid the high prices of commodities, if they were even available. I started feeling exhausted and ill due to the lack of food, especially since I was eight months pregnant. My children also showed signs of fatigue and paleness due to malnutrition while my son Majd lost more than 5 kilograms. As Majd requires proper nutrition and glucose solutions, which were not available, I decided to go to southern Gaza Strip to save myself and my children from the famine and poverty striking the northern Gaza Strip.
The next morning, I took my children and headed to al-Rashid Street to cross the military checkpoint established there. It was 12:00 pm when we reached al-Nabulsi roundabout near the checkpoint, along with thousands of displaced people like us fleeing for their lives. We found ourselves surrounded by Israeli tanks, which directly fired an artillery shell at us, wounding me and my children. I lost consciousness and woke up three days later in bed at al-Shifa Medical Complex. I couldn’t move my body at all, and the doctors informed me that after the shelling, displaced people had rescued me and my son Jamil and brought us to the complex. More than 50 people were killed that in the incident; some were waiting for aid trucks to feed their starving children and families, while others were trying to cross to the south. After I woke up, I was told that my sons Majd and Ameer were killed, and their bodies were torn into pieces. I also learned that I sustained severe fractures in my left foot and need a bone graft. Additionally, my left hand’s joint was completely smashed, and I need a full joint replacement. I also sustained injuries and severe burns in my face, which caused me to lose hearing after my left ear was completely severed. I now need a cochlear implant.
I obtained a medical referral for treatment aboard, as my treatment is unavailable in the Gaza Strip. A few days later, I began to feel labor pains. My mother, who had been by my side since I was brought to the hospital, started searching for a doctor to help me with delivery. However, we could not find a single gynecologist nor any medications or medical supplies at the hospital. On 28 February 2024, I gave birth in the morning on the same bed, as I was unable to move at all due to my injuries. Some nurses, who were not specialized in obstetrics, assisted me in delivering my daughter, Rahma, who was born dead due to the severe bleeding and injuries I sustained from the bombing.
I remained in the hospital for treatment until 19 March 2024 when we were surprised with IOF besieging the hospital and Israeli tanks advancing under fire from warplanes and quadcopters targeting anyone moving in the hospital’s vicinity. We were completely trapped without food, water, or electricity. The following day, the IOF ordered patients’ companions to evacuate the hospital and head southwards. My mother was forced to evacuate and leave me behind. My brothers later informed me that she went to her relatives’ house in Tel al-Hawa near the Red Cross headquarters and stayed there for 5 days, waiting for the IOF to withdraw so she could return to check on me. Unfortunately, the IOF besieged them in Tel al-Hawa and ordered them to evacuate. However, my mother, E’atedal Ghabboun (62) was unable to move, so the IOF shot her, killing her instantly. I was left alone unable to move with the siege on the hospital imposed for 14 days. We were around 100 patients unable to move in the building not to mention the other patients and displaced people trapped in al-Shifa’s other buildings. The IOF ordered nurses to move us from one place to another and shot dead some of them after beating and interrogating them. The number of patients decreased day by day as they died due to the lack of treatment, and after being intentionally beaten by the IOF to kill them. Also, our injuries got infected with warms coming out of our hand and leg injuries with no nurses available to change the dressing. We spent all that time without even a sip of water or food. We then began screaming and calling for water and food, and they brought us only a little. The IOF also threatened to kill us.
We remained in that situation until IOF’s withdrawal after 14 days. Afterwards, I called my brother to come to the hospital and take me. I was then referred to al-Ma’madani Hospital staying there only for a few hours as doctors informed me that my treatment was not available. On 17 April 2024, my brother took me along with the remaining members of my family and headed to the south. I crossed the checkpoint on a worn-out wheelchair for being unable to move. We immediately went to the European Hospital, where I underwent surgery to place an external fixation device in my injured leg. Doctors informed me that it was a preventive procedure until I could travel for treatment abroad. They also informed me that if I wasn’t referred abroad soon, my leg might need to be amputated.
I met my husband at the hospital, where I stayed for two weeks receiving treatment. Afterward, we went to a small tent on Abu ‘Oraif Street near al-Shuhada School in Deir al-Balah. My husband, my only son, and I are enduring hellish living conditions, as we have no source of income. I also need many health essentials for my injuries and urgently need a wheelchair. I am waiting for anyone to assist me in traveling abroad for treatment before my leg would be amputated.
