Photo: Getty Images
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — A Medway family has crossed the border into Egypt after spending weeks in war-torn Gaza since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out.
The Boston Globe reports that Abood Okal, Wafaa Abuzayda, and their 1-year-old son, Yousef, were able to leave Gaza early Thursday morning and enter Egypt.
A spokesperson for the family told the Globe that the Okal family is "overwhelmed with the love and support they have received from home and abroad."
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For the last few weeks, the Okal family has been waiting near the Rafah border. They were able to get several messages back to the media in the U.S. expressing the desperate humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza and said they feared for their safety. They said in recent days, they've been desperately low on clean drinking water, medicine, and food.
The Okal family was visiting family in Gaza when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 killing more than 1,400 people and taking about 200 hostage.
Israel retaliated against Hamas, sending airstrikes into Gaza and an expanded ground invasion. About 9,000 people, mostly women and minors, in Gaza have died since the war began while 32,000 people have been left injured, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Thursday. They did not provide a breakdown of how many killed were civilians or fighters.
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