Many Palestinian with special needs, including children, have lost their homes, medical supplies, and equipment due to Israel’s deliberate bombing of homes and residential buildings in the besieged Gaza Strip during Israel’s five-day offensive on the coastal region. Nabhan family is an example of the extent of suffering and Israel’s disregard for basic human rights and International Law.
Palestinians from the Nabhan family are scrambling under the rubble to find medicine and medical supplies for their brothers and sisters with epilepsy and those who are with special needs after the army bombed their home Saturday in Jabalia in northern Gaza and turned it into rubble.
The Nabhan family lived in a building owned by Khaled Nabhan, consisting of four floors containing eight apartments. The Israeli missiles targeted the building, leveling it and causing serious damage to surrounding homes.
Family and neighbors volunteered to search the rubble using flashlights, mainly from their mobile phones at night, trying to find anything they could salvage, especially medicine, medical supplies, and equipment, in the destroyed building where 40 Palestinians lived, including ten with special needs.
Najah Nabhan, Khaled’s wife and the mother of several children with special needs, said the army had no reason to target their building, especially since it housed innocent civilians, including children with special needs.
“My daughter, Ayat, 20, cannot walk, my two other daughters, Arij, 18, has epilepsy, and Hanin, 16, also has health issues and cannot walk,” Najah said, “Also, Bilal, 30, has epilepsy and cannot walk, and Razan Jamal Nabhan, 4, also cannot walk….”
She added that the medicines they require are not found in pharmacies as they are special meds that cannot be obtained in any regular pharmacy or clinic. “We get those medications from special centers, and they aren’t always available,” Najah said.
“The children and the neighbors are looking for leg braces for Razan and two wheelchairs used by Jalal and Ayat,” Najad said, “We are still looking for books and school supplies all buried under the rubble…But also among the valuables we lost are medical reports, personal documents, and the lifetime work and efforts done all those years….”
When asked about her husband, Khaled Nabhan, Najah said he “was rushed to a hospital when he collapsed and suffered severe shock after he saw the destruction caused by Israel….”
After the army destroyed the property, inhabited by immediate and extended family members, some sought shelter with neighbors, and others with relatives, wondering what they would do next and how they would survive, especially since the building was fit for their special needs and contained their medical supplies and equipment.
Mohammad Khaled Nabhan, 16, said he was sleeping when his family woke him up and told them they received a call from the army and needed to leave the building before it was bombed.
“I didn’t want to leave, this is my home, my shelter, but my cousins carried me out,” Mohammad said.
Ala’ Nabhan said he saved many for some time before he wanted to get married and bought some gold, but all were buried under the rubble.
“I don’t have a steady job; I work a day here and a day there and have been saving to get married and have been depriving myself of many things so I can save enough,” Ala’ said, “Now, it is all gone, nothing left, the Israeli missiles left us homeless, they didn’t even leave sheets or pillows….”
Husam Nabhan, a neighbor, and a family relative, said the army had no reason to bomb the building, especially since it housed people with special needs, and nobody has any ties with resistance groups.
