LONDON and GAZA – Osama Abu Safar is a Palestinian activist and journalist. He, also a wheelchair user, is struggling with the new realities of life after he and his family were forced to leave their home in the Gaza Strip after the war between Israel and Hamas broke out.
On October 7, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing more than 1,200 people. Shortly after the conflict broke out, they fled their homes in the Deir al-Balah refugee camp in central Gaza and are currently taking refuge in a United Nations relief center. Directorate of Engineering (UNRWA) School.
Abu Safar said the journey from his home to the shelter was not easy.
“My kids and I were in wheelchairs dragging ourselves,” he told ABC News on Monday.
But weeks later, he chose to embark on an even more arduous journey – trekking more than 8 miles from the shelter to a clinic to take his 4-month-old baby for routine vaccinations.
“It was dangerous because the bombing didn’t stop and I was afraid of getting hurt at any time,” he told ABC News. But he was determined his son would not miss his first vaccination.
Routine vaccination rates in Gaza were high before the conflict began, with coverage around 90%, according to UNICEF, but since the war began, many parents in Gaza have not been able to get the same vaccinations as Abu Sahad, according to UNICEF. Foer takes care of his children and provides humanitarian aid to children.
Thousands of children in the Gaza Strip are currently not receiving routine vaccinations, raising the possibility of a major health crisis, UNICEF has warned.
“The key issue now is that children’s health services are on the verge of collapse,” UNICEF spokesman Toby Fricker told ABC News on Wednesday. He added, “We “We are very concerned about a significant drop in routine vaccination rates, which will put children, especially those under 5 years old, at risk of infection.” Disease outbreaks are a huge danger, especially as winter approaches, “
“If routine immunization coverage drops significantly, the risk of diseases such as food-borne diseases will be fatal,” Frick said.
According to UNRWA, nearly 1.6 million people have been displaced in the Gaza Strip since Israel launched a military operation on October 7 in retaliation for Hamas terror attacks on Israel, which killed more than 1,200 Israelis and at least 6,900 One person was injured, according to Israeli officials.
In Gaza, at least 11,500 people have been killed and another 29,800 injured, according to the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
“Nearly 795,500 internally displaced persons (IDPs) are currently sheltering in 154 UNRWA facilities in all five governorates of the Gaza Strip, including the north,” UNRWA said in its latest statement on the situation in Gaza.
International agencies and aid groups have warned of an unfolding humanitarian crisis in Gaza amid Israel’s offensive to destroy Hamas.
Abu Seif said the UNRWA shelters were overcrowded and the people living there had little access to basic amenities.
“They don’t have the capacity to accommodate everyone,” Abu Sarfo told ABC News. He and his family have been living in these difficult conditions for nearly six weeks. He said sanitary conditions were poor and they slept on mattresses on the floor. He was particularly concerned about his nursing wife.
“Three of my children got gastroenteritis and their mother got sick because of the contaminated water,” he said.
As a family, they are struggling with scarce resources at UNRWA schools. “I try, I rush, I go from the bread line to the water line and try to be with my kids,” Abu Safar told ABC News.
Like many Gazans, he said, the nights are the hardest.
“All the fear and terror starts at night. We believe that we will not wake up as survivors of heavy bombing,” he told ABC News.