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Arij ‘Abdu

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Arij ‘Abdu

( 18 July 2023 )

A 25-year-old married mother of five children between the ages of nine months and nine,  from a-Nuseirat neighborhood

My husband, Tamer (30), and I have five children: Hiyam (9), Jihan (7), ‘Abd al-Karim (4), Maher (2) and Muhammad (9 months).  

Hiyam’s legs have been paralyzed ever since she fell from a very high place a few years ago, and her spinal cord was injured. She was treated at the al-Makassed hospital, and they told us there that she needs treatment in Israel or abroad, but we can’t afford it. She can’t move, and she’s incontinent. She needs to use diapers. We can’t afford to buy her an electric wheelchair. It seriously limits her and hinders her at school. It breaks my heart to see her like this, but I don’t have any way to help her.   

We live in a 50-square-meter apartment that my husband’s family owns, and it's very crowded. We don’t have a washing machine, fridge or even a TV for the children. I can only dream of those appliances that would make our lives easier and that every other family has. My husband works odd jobs in mainteneance and construction. He earns about 50 to 60 NIS a month (~USD 13-16), which we live on. It’s definitely not enough for our needs. I dream of a bigger house, with a room for the boys and a room for the girls, but we can’t afford anything like that.  

Arij ‘Abdu with her daughter Hiyam. Photo by Olfat al-Kurd, B’Tselem
Arij ‘Abdu with her daughter Hiyam. Photo by Olfat al-Kurd, B’Tselem

Our situation also affects the kids’ nutrition, and I can’t buy them enough good, fresh food. I try not to take them to the market so that they won’t ask for things that I can’t afford. In the past, we got benefits from the Welfare Ministry, about 800 NIS (~USD 210), but it stopped. The clothes the children wear we got from donations.  

Our situation makes me feel helpless, frustrated and sad. My kids deserve to live like other children. I know that many people in the Gaza Strip live in poverty and we’re not the only ones. We suffer from a lack of electricity. Like others in Gaza, we get electricity for only two to five hours a day. The suffering is even worse in the summer, when we can’t turn on fans.   

My children’s dreams and my dreams are simple. Hiyam, for example, dreams of a battery-powered fan that works during power outages. She dreams of her own room, with her own bed and closet. I dream of seeing my children happy and smiling, of them having the simplest things other kids have. I dream of starting a small business so that we can have a fixed income.  : 

* Testimony given to B'Tselem Field Researcher Olfat al-Kurd on 18 July 2023.  

Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation is inextricably bound up in human rights violations. B’Tselem strives to end this regime, as that is the only way forward to a future in which human rights, democracy, liberty and equality are ensured to all people, both Palestinian and Israeli, living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Since the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, Israel has acted in a coordinated and deliberate manner to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip, committing genocide against its residents. In light of Israel’s actions in Gaza, the public statements made by Israeli decision-makers, and the international community’s failure to take effective action, there is a serious risk that the Israeli regime will expand the genocide to other areas under its control—first and foremost, the West Bank.
B’Tselem calls on the Israeli public and the international community to use every tool available under international law to bring an immediate end to Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.