Medway family desperately trying to evacuate Gaza stuck at Egyptian border
BOSTON - Some families in Gaza say they're trying to comply with Israel's evacuation orders but the border crossings are closed and the air strikes keep coming.
One of them is the Okal family from Medway. Wafaa Abuzayda and Abood Okal and their one-year-old son Yousef are all U.S. citizens. They were visiting relatives in Gaza when Hamas attacked on October 7 and they've been scrambling to get back to Massachusetts ever since.
The U.S. State Department says nearly 1,000 Americans and their families have been flown out of Israel so far. The Okals friend, Sammy Nabulsi, thinks the American effort to get citizens out of Gaza has been lopsided and insufficient.
"It doesn't matter if you're on the Israeli side or the Gazan side, every single American citizen needs to come home and come home safely," Nabulsi told WBZ-TV.
The Okals started heading south in Gaza with their son when they were told to evacuate, but they've been stuck at the border with Egypt for three days. The situation is getting dire.
"My last communication with Abood, he told me the U.S. Embassy in Cairo called him and asked him if the situation was improving and progress was happening at (the border crossing at) Rafah," Nabulsi said. "I'm so worried about (Tuesday). Their son started spiking a fever, he's had a fever now for the last 24 hours. They have no medicine."
Nabulsi said he's been in touch with the State Department and they said once the Okals and others do cross into Egypt, they have to arrange for their own transportation to Cairo, which is a five-hour drive from the border.
