Rasha Abu Sbeaka, a Palestinian, barely survived Israel’s two-year genocidal war in Gaza, surviving four bombings and twice being pulled from the rubble after attacks.
Tragically, however, even after a ceasefire is established, the war and its aftermath could still kill her.
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Abu Sbeaka developed stage 3 breast cancer during the conflict, and Israel’s destruction of the Gaza Strip’s health sector, combined with the continued closure of borders from the enclave that allow her to receive treatment abroad, means she cannot access the care she urgently needs to survive.
Abu Subeaka said her situation often made her feel like she was “going to die.” “I thought I was on my deathbed, so I was hugging and kissing my children every day.”
Abu Sbeakah, along with fellow Palestinian Merbat Sarhan, who was recently released after enduring months of beatings and electric shocks in Israeli prisons, told Al Jazeera their story about the struggle Palestinians face to overcome the damage inflicted by Israel’s war on Gaza, even after the ceasefire.
“We want the world to know our story,” she said.
Everything is “stagnant”
In an interview with Al Jazeera from the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, Abu Subeaka said his health has been severely affected by the war.
She believes her cancer is caused by the exhaust fumes released by constant bombing and rocket fire.
“I often have trouble breathing,” she said.
She said the war has devastated Gaza’s health system, making it difficult to access urgently needed care.
“Because of the war and closed intersections, there is no cure or alternative treatment,” she says. “Everything has stopped here.”
In addition to the damage to her physical health, she said the predicament has also taken a toll on her mental health as she struggles to find reliable treatment and a path to overcoming her illness.
“My mental health was completely destroyed. I wasn’t before. I was a person who loved life,” she said.
With support from the World Health Organization (WHO), a small number of critically ill patients are being evacuated for treatment. But the number of evacuees, including 41 on Thursday, is only a fraction of the total number of people evacuated. According to the WHO, 15,000 patients need to be evacuated, including 3,800 children.
Israel continues to close the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, even though the cease-fire agreement stipulates that it be open to the movement of people. The WHO has called for all border crossings in Gaza to be opened for both aid entry and medical evacuation, saying the evacuation could take up to 10 years if it continues at the current pace.
Abu Sbeaka said she and her fellow cancer patients in Gaza are determined to beat the disease. “The sooner they open their borders, the more we can travel abroad and get the treatment we need to recover quickly.”
Her husband was killed in front of her children.
In Khan Younis, Sarhan is fighting his own battle as he struggles to rebuild his shattered life after nearly five months in Israeli detention.
While in Israeli custody, she said she endured beatings, electric shocks and threats to kill her children during interrogation.
The ordeal for Sarhan, one of two Palestinian women freed in recent cease-fire deals with Israel, began early one morning in May when Israeli special forces disguised as women burst into the bedroom she shared with her husband.
“They ransacked the house and kept asking questions like, ‘Where are you hiding? Where are the prisoners?'” Sarhan told Al Jazeera.
She said they knew nothing about the prisoners until Israeli soldiers killed her husband in front of their terrified children.
“Then they started grabbing my kids one by one. They kept breaking the furniture. They handcuffed me and took me away.”
She said Israeli forces took her along with her 13-year-old son and left the younger children “with their dead father lying on the floor.”
beatings, electric shocks
Sarhan was later interrogated by the military, where she said she was beaten and shocked by Israeli officers who questioned her about her contact with her husband.
Although she was told her son would be released, she was sent to Israel’s Ashkelon prison and held for a month in a “dark cell unfit for human life.”
During this time, she was interrogated daily.
“They threatened to kill my children, send me to prison for life, and told me I would never see my children again,” she said.
Sarhan, along with other Palestinian prisoners of war, is now focused on rebuilding her life without her husband after her release.
Many of the freed Palestinians bore signs of torture and ill-treatment. Some of those whose bodies were returned appeared to have been blindfolded and executed by Israeli forces. Human rights groups said there were reports of years of torture in Israeli prisons.
