Gaza City – With a wounded forearm, Nebal al-Hessi scrolled on her phone, following news about the reopening of the Rafah land crossing from her family’s tent in an-Nazla, in the northern Gaza Strip.

On October 7, 2024, Nebar’s hands were amputated when Israeli artillery struck the home where she had taken refuge with her husband and daughter in the Buriji refugee camp in central Gaza.

More than a year later, the 25-year-old mother is one of thousands of injured who want the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt to be reopened as they seek adequate medical care outside the besieged Palestinian territory.

“It’s been a year and five months since I got injured… Every day, I’m thinking that tomorrow, I might travel, but I don’t know,” Neybar told Al Jazeera softly.

Recalling the attack, Neybar said she was sitting on her bed holding her young daughter, Rita, trying to communicate with her family in northern Gaza when shells suddenly struck.

“I was trying to catch the internet signal to call my family…my daughter was in my lap…and suddenly the shell hit me. Then came the dust; I don’t remember anything else,” Nebar said.

“It was these shell fragments that amputated my hand,” she recalled.

“Life is completely paralyzed”

Nebar was taken to hospital with serious injuries, including complete amputation of both upper limbs to the elbows, internal bleeding and leg injuries. She underwent two abdominal surgeries.

She spent about 40 days in the hospital and then began a new phase of suffering in a displacement tent without the most basic long-term care.

Today, Nebal, an English translation graduate and mother to two-year-old Rita, relies almost entirely on her family to carry out even the simplest of daily tasks.

“I couldn’t eat, drink… or even dress myself, and it was mainly my mother, sister and sister-in-law who helped me,” she said sadly.

“Even going to the bathroom requires help. I need to have things in front of me because I can’t get them myself.”

Nebar spoke of the pain of being a mother as her daughter grows up before her eyes without her being able to hold her or care for her.

“My little girl wants me to change her diaper, feed her, give her milk, hold her in my arms like any other mother… She asks me, but I can’t,” Nebar said sadly.

“My life was completely paralyzed.”

Doctors told Neibar that she urgently needed to continue treatment and be fitted with a prosthetic leg, emphasizing that she needed advanced prosthetics to regain a degree of independence, not just a cosmetic appearance.

“Doctors told me that I needed a country or institution to adopt my case so that I could gradually return to a normal life,” she added.

Nebar, like many others, is living in a state of anticipation mixed with fear as the Palestinian Authority today announced arrangements to open the Rafah crossing for a group of wounded and sick people.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, thousands of injured still require specialized treatment that is not available within the Gaza Strip, and arrangements are dependent on medical lists and complex approvals, lacking clear timelines or publicly announced priority criteria.

Neybar said she has received multiple calls over the past few months from medical providers informing her that she would be among the first on the travel list.

“They contacted me more than once to prepare me… They gave me hope,” she added. “But this time, no one has contacted me yet.”

Now, Neibar worries that her case might be ignored again, or that the opening of the crossing might be just a formality that ignores the urgent needs of patients like her.

“Because of my current situation, I die a little bit every day… not figuratively. I’ve been like this for a year and four months, and my daughter is growing up in front of me and I’m helpless,” she said.

uncertain future

Nada Arhouma, a 16-year-old girl whose life was completely changed by an injury, also hopes the border crossing will open as soon as possible.

Nada, who was displaced with her family from the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza during Israel’s two-year genocidal war in Gaza, was hit in the face by shrapnel in a displacement tent in Sheikha Radwan, Gaza City.

The incident resulted in the complete loss of one of her eyes, as well as facial fractures, orbital damage and severe tissue tears.

Her father, Abdul Rahman Arhouma, 49, said her health deteriorated over time despite attempts at treatment in Gaza.

“She was admitted to the intensive care unit of Shifa Hospital and then transferred to Al-Nasser Hospital. She stayed there for about two and a half months. They tried several times to transplant her eyes, but each time the operation failed and the disfigurement became worse,” he said.

According to her father, Nada underwent three failed surgical attempts using tissue from her hands and other facial areas, further complicating her medical and psychological condition.

“My daughter’s eyes bleed every day and there is pus and discharge,” he said. “I was helpless and couldn’t do anything.”

Today, Nada needs constant help to walk and continues to experience dizziness and loss of balance. Vision in her healthy eye was also affected.

“Even to go to the bathroom, my sisters help me. I can’t walk alone,” Nada told Al Jazeera softly.

Nada had a formal medical referral and urgently needed to travel for reconstructive surgery and implantation of a prosthetic eye. But until Rafa reopens, her ability to get treatment remains uncertain — as is the case for other patients and injured people.

“Ever since I was hospitalized, I heard every week: The border crossings will be open next week. Honestly, I think they are lying. I’m not optimistic,” Nada said.

Her father told Al Jazeera it was “disappointing” to continue waiting for the Rafah crossing to reopen.

“Unfortunately, we don’t understand anything. All the reports are coming from Israel and Rafah looks like a gate for prisoners rather than a gate for passage,” he said.

“We were in a difficult position and it was clear that we were going to have to wait a long time to secure my daughter’s right to treatment.”

Pilot reopening

Sunday was the first day of a pilot reopening in Rafah, but the mechanisms are unclear and there is a lack of clarity, especially on the number of sick and injured people allowed to travel.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, thousands of patients and injured require emergency medical evacuation outside the Gaza Strip due to the collapse of the health care system and lack of resources.

The World Health Organization has repeatedly confirmed that Gaza’s health system is “on the verge of collapse” and that travel delays for critical cases threaten their lives.

Meanwhile, Israel has said it would only allow those with prior approval to cross, without clearly announcing daily numbers or criteria for approval, leaving families of patients with constant anticipation and frustration.

For Nada’s family, this “experimental opening” means little so far.

“We couldn’t plan, we couldn’t stay or leave,” her father said. “The decision is not in our hands. One person lives in a whirlpool and cannot decide what happens. Even the Ministry of Health has not revealed any information.”

‘Devastating’ struggle to get treatment

Raed Hamad, a 52-year-old father of four, is also desperate to leave Gaza to seek treatment and medicine that is unavailable in the war-torn region.

A year before the war broke out, Hamad was being treated for kidney cancer. After the tumor was detected, he underwent a nephrectomy to prevent it from spreading. But the outbreak of war in October 2023 halted his treatment regimen, seriously affecting his health.

Hamad lives in the ruins of his destroyed house in Khan Younis, surrounded by the devastation caused by the war and deteriorating humanitarian conditions.

He described it as “devastating” that he currently faces the same difficulties in accessing treatment as other cancer patients he encounters in hospital oncology units during the war.

“The war has made it almost impossible to obtain medicines and medical supplies. Cancer treatments and known treatment options are unavailable,” he said.

“The food, the nature of it and the severe crisis we experienced during the war – all of this greatly affected my health.”

Due to complications from the disease, lack of treatment and malnutrition, Red’s weight dropped from 92 kilograms (203 pounds) to 65 kilograms (143 pounds).

“I will continue treatment at my own expense whenever possible,” he said. “Every time I go to the hospital, I can’t find a treatment and Gaza’s capabilities are extremely limited. My immunity is very low and I face new difficulties every day.

“I need to complete my treatment plan, get a nuclear scan and get some essential medicines to continue my treatment.”