The words of patience and description of pain seem to be “unable” to explain the situation of Al-Issawi family from the Gaza Strip. It is the story of a family that gave one of its children as a martyr while the rest of the children were injured with their courageous and wounded mother shedding her tears over their situation.
The wounds of the five brothers vary between serious and moderate. The doctors removed the intestines of some of them while shrapnel penetrated the lungs of one of them and crushed the bones of others. All of them are still suffering from endless pain.
In the presence of this patient family a wound is hardly healed before another one opens. Atef Al-Issawi 25 was paralyzed from the waist down following nine injuries on the Gaza Strip fence.
Protester despite disability
Al-Issawi’s friends and relatives gather around his wheelchair which is new to him. Atef used to move lightly along the fence with platinum bars fixed in his legs.
“I came today to participate in the Great March of Return but this time on a wheelchair. I have sustained nine injuries and I am still demanding the right of return and breaking the siege. My thoughts are with the prisoners and the wounded and the families of martyrs despite my disability now” he told the PIC reporter.
He pointed out that he was shot by the Israeli snipers for the first time in 2007 followed by four consecutive injuries in 2015 as well as injuries in 2016 and during the Great March of Return in 2018.
He continued: “The last injury was in October last year and caused nerve damage paralysis in the limbs and I was placed on a wheelchair unable to move.”
He declares with a challenging tone the continuation of peaceful protests along with his family despite the injury of his body. His voice faded as he called on the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas to cover his treatment expenses and to send him outside Gaza to get proper treatment.
Paralyzed and poor
The bursts of explosive bullets ended in Atef’s legs which have been punctuated by platinum bars several times. The most recent bullet has resulted in the deterioration of his condition resulting in a paralysis in his legs and right arm.
Al-Issawi was one of the witnesses at an Israeli military court which was held two years ago to consider the murder of child Abdul Rahman Al-Dabbagh (killed by an Israeli soldier who fired a bomb directly at his head) and was famous for having many details of the stories of the wounded and martyrs because of his frequent participation in the Great March of Return.
All his grieving mother wishes for is for her children to receive needed treatment and care adding: “I was injured in September 2018 with a bullet in my neck during my participation in the Great March of Return. Our lives have become very difficult. Every day I take care of five injured children but I continue participating in the peaceful protests. I hope that my children will receive care and treatment.”
Meanwhile Mazen the youngest brother hopes that his brother Atef will receive the necessary treatment and care because he has the most serious injury among them.
