"It was dire for them": Friends pleading for US government to help Medway family escape Gaza
MEDWAY - A Medway family is caught up in a mass evacuation from a war zone with their one-year-old baby boy, thousands of miles from home. "If they haven't already, they were running out of diapers, milk, water," said their friend Sammy Nabulsi in Boston.
Wafaa Abuzayda and Abood Okal and their son Yousef are all U.S. citizens. They were supposed to return home Friday from a two-week trip visiting relatives in the northern part of Gaza. But halfway through their visit, the sky lit up with explosions as Israel retaliated after the deadly attacks by Hamas.
The Okals sent a picture of bombs exploding outside their window to neighbor Paul Santosuosso back in Medway. "They seemed scared and worried about where they were, their supplies, and how to get home," he said.
Overnight, Israel Defense Forces dropped leaflets urging people to leave the territory. Friends back home stopped getting updates from the Okals. There was a tense period of more than 24 hours when all communication was lost. "My thoughts and prayers are with you, my whole family, everybody on this street here," said Santosuosso.
"It was dire for them a day ago, 24 hours ago. I can't imagine what today must be like for them and the baby," said Nabulsi. Friday afternoon, he finally got word that the Okals had survived the first leg of their forced trip south. They had made it close to the border with Egypt.
Nabulsi has been in touch with the White House and Congressional leaders, pleading for them to help facilitate safe passage to Egypt. "A U.S. citizen is a U.S. citizen is a U.S. citizen. All of them need to be brought back safely," Nabulsi said. "They need to be brought back now, and it should not matter which side of the wall that they're on."
The Medway Board of Selectmen is drafting a letter to send to political leaders in Washington asking them to do anything possible to help the family get back home safely.