War between Israel and Hamas: She was able to leave Gaza after half of her family was killed in an Israeli attack

CNN
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Roba Abu Jibba looked shocked when the doctor gave her the news: she could not undergo the operation she so desperately wanted. Nervously, she crumpled the fabric of her dress and fought back the tears that flooded her remaining eye.

The 19-year-old Palestinian had pinned all her hopes on an artificial eye after suffering life-changing injuries in an Israeli attack in Gaza. She was brought to Doha by the Qatari government for treatment.

But once again their dreams were shattered.

“I came here and now they’re telling me I can’t get a prosthesis,” she told CNN, sobbing. “Why am I here? I knew I wouldn’t be able to see with it, but it’s good and my eyes will look the same as before.”

Abu Jibba lost her right eye and the surrounding part of her face in early January when an Israeli bomb hit the warehouse in central Gaza where she and her family had been seeking shelter for months.

Three of her brothers and two of her sisters were killed. Her wounded mother and three surviving siblings tried to get help but abandoned her, later believing her to be dead. She spent more than three days among the bodies of her siblings before reaching a hospital – only to find that there were no doctors there to treat her, as most medical staff had fled the fighting in the area.

A CNN investigation into the circumstances of the attack, which lasted several weeks, found that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attacked an industrial zone home to dozens of civilians without any warning, using heavy munitions whose effects weapons experts said were consistent with those of a 2,000-pound bomb.

The Israeli military told CNN it carried out a “precise strike” after its troops came under fire from the site. Survivors told CNN in January that there were no militants in the warehouse that was hit, but reported “resistance fire” in the area.

Looking back on that night, Abu Jibba told CNN she blames both Israel and Palestinian militants for what happened to her family. She said she believed Hamas or other militants fired a mortar from a nearby area.

“I blame the people…” she said, reflecting on her words. “And Hamas – and this situation. Because we lived in the warehouse for a month, completely normally… If the mortar shells hadn’t been fired, the incident would not have happened. We didn’t even want to stay in the warehouse, but they (Israelis) forced us to stay there,” she told CNN, using a derogatory term for Israeli troops.

“I blame (the Israelis) for killing the children. They spared no one,” she added.

Abu Jibba was once gregarious and outgoing. After watching her siblings killed in front of her, she became quiet and deeply depressed. Her aunt, who accompanied her to Qatar, told CNN that the young woman now prefers solitude and rarely goes outside. She spends most of her time looking at photos of her family taken before the war – the few that she still has.

She said her only source of happiness was Mohammed, a friend of her brother. The two met after her family was evicted from their home in Gaza City and grew closer after the January attack. When Abu Jibba and her family were separated and she was hospitalized, Mohammed offered her much-needed emotional support. She said they planned to get engaged and married.

“He didn’t care what people said about my appearance when they said, ‘How could you marry her after she was injured in the eye and body?’ He replied, ‘I don’t care about her body, what’s in her heart,'” she told CNN.

Seven days before Abu Jibba left Gaza to seek treatment, Mohammed was hit by an artillery shell while collecting firewood in Rafah. Her cousin, who was with Mohammed, was injured in the attack and lost a leg.

Abu Jibba said she did not even have a photo of Mohammed because she lost her phone in the carnage.

Abu Jibba’s injuries were so severe that Gaza’s Health Ministry put her on a list of people who needed treatment abroad. Three days after CNN’s report on Abu Jibba aired in February, she was cleared for medical evacuation. After weeks of waiting, she was able to enter Egypt and was then flown to Qatar for treatment.

Most of the 2.2 million Palestinians living in Gaza have never left the Strip. Before the war, about 18,000 Gazans had work permits that allowed them to work in Israel. But after Hamas launched its deadly terrorist attack from Gaza on October 7, Israel closed its borders and generally only allowed foreigners and a few hundred seriously injured people to leave.

“It’s hard to leave your family, especially in times of war and in a difficult situation,” she said. “I’m afraid something else might happen to them and I won’t be able to take them with me.”

Abu Jibba told CNN she decided to leave because she believed doctors could restore her sight through surgery. In Egypt, she was told that was not possible because her entire eye had been removed, but the Qatari government offered her further treatment.

But her stay in Doha turned into another traumatic experience.

The doctor told her that orbital implants were not available in Qatar and said her problem was purely “cosmetic.”

Research has long shown that ocular prostheses lead to a significant improvement in the physical and mental health of the patient. The prosthesis consists of an artificial eye, eyelids and missing parts of the eye socket or the surrounding area. It is a cost-effective and less complicated alternative to reconstructive surgery and is performed routinely around the world.

As Abu Jibba left the doctor’s office, she was overwhelmed by the gravity of the moment. She was shaking and gasping for air. Panic spread through her and it looked as if she was reliving the worst moment of her life. She pressed her hands over her ears and leaned against the wall.

Nurses carefully placed her on a stretcher. She curled up and hid under a blanket.

She hides the news from her mother because she fears the shock will cause her even more pain.

“She pushed me to go and have surgery. I don’t want to go back to her with this bandage,” she said. “I (need this) so my mother doesn’t see me like this and be depressed.”

Later that day, Abu Jibba told CNN that she wanted nothing more than to return to Gaza.

“Yes, there is war in Gaza, but at least you are with your family and loved ones,” she said. “I just hope to God that this war is over… but even if there is war, I want to go back.”