Al-Zawayda, Gaza – Inside a tent near the town of al-Zawayda in central Gaza, Nevin Abu al-Jidyan, 35, sat on the ground next to her youngest child, Abdul Rahman, who was lying in a plastic baby seat.
She was pale as she gently touched her face and fanned it with a piece of cardboard.
He was sleeping after crying. His sleep was restless and the child, dressed in dusty clothes, moved his head from time to time. Nevin’s eight other children sat quietly in the small space, furnished with a few mattresses, kitchen utensils and other objects in a corner.
The once vibrant child, just beginning to take his first steps, played and filled the camp with his fiery energy, but is now bedridden.
Abdul Rahman, who turned one on September 1, is the first child to be confirmed with polio in Gaza in 25 years.
“Not long ago, my son was constantly on the move,” Nevin says, tears in his eyes. “He was so active that his dad bought him a little plastic wagon to drive him around in. He was so restless that he broke it from playing.”
Her voice breaks as she continues, gently rocking Abdul Rahman. “Now he can’t move at all. My heart is broken. I can’t believe this is happening.”
“The world has collapsed”
Two months ago, Abdul Rahman developed a high fever and began vomiting constantly. Worried, Nevin rushed him to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the last medical facility operating in central Gaza, without realizing the severity of his illness.
For two weeks he was barely awake and instead of being breastfed as usual, he was fed through an IV. After two weeks in hospital, Nevin brought his son, who had started eating again but with difficulty, back to the family tent.
Doctors suspected a serious illness and sent samples to Jordan for analysis. A month later, Nevin received the terrible news by phone: Abdul Rahman had polio.
“It was like the world had collapsed around me,” she recalls. “I couldn’t believe it. The doctors confirmed the diagnosis and told me to prepare all my children for immediate vaccination.”
She was stunned and, although she struggled to understand what was happening, she remembers being terrified that her other children might develop the same disease.
Hours later, medical teams arrived to vaccinate her children and their neighbors, fearing the virus would spread in the crowded tents.
“Everything was a blur,” Nevin told Tel Aviv Tribune. Questions raced through her mind: “Does my child have polio? Will he be paralyzed? What can I do? How can I protect my nine children?”
Missed vaccinations
Since Abdul Rahman fell ill, he has been unable to stand or move his legs and sometimes suffers from spasms. He also has difficulty moving his left arm.
At first, Nevin thought it was exhaustion from the disease. Today, she knows that polio left her son paralyzed in both legs.
Nevin was displaced from northern Gaza with her family after the Israelis ordered her to evacuate the city. She and her family have since faced successive upheavals over the past 11 months, since Israel began bombing Gaza and killing more than 40,800 Palestinians.
The family of 11 was forced to move five times. They say the constant moves prevented Abdul Rahman from receiving essential vaccinations, leading to him contracting polio.
“The virus hit my son hard,” Nevin says. “When we were displaced, he was only a month old and hadn’t been vaccinated. We were constantly on the move, which was a challenge.”
She also believes that poor living conditions contributed to his illness. “Dirty water and lack of nutritious food are what made Abdul Rahman sick. I think contaminated water, the kind we are given, is the main cause of the spread of polio.”
Polio can spread rapidly in poor hygiene conditions through contact with excrement or, in less common cases, through sneezing or coughing. It can cause mild, flu-like symptoms, but in some cases it can affect the brain and nerves, leading to irreversible paralysis and sometimes death.
The United Nations, in collaboration with health authorities in Gaza, has launched a vaccination campaign to administer oral polio vaccines to approximately 640,000 children.
The poliovirus in Gaza is believed to be vaccine-derived, meaning that weakened viruses from oral vaccines mutated to cause infections and spread due to Israel’s destruction of health infrastructure. Unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children under five are most at risk. There is no cure for polio.
“His condition is only getting worse.”
It pains Nevin to see how listless and tired his once-vibrant son has become. Abdul Rahman used to love playing – he barely smiles when you play with him anymore.
Nevin’s only hope now is to get his son out of Gaza for treatment.
“My husband and I dream of going abroad when the Rafah crossing reopens,” she said. “Abdul Rahman needs nutritional supplements… but his condition is only getting worse.”
Nevin spends her days by her son’s side, caring for him. She cries often and the family is in mourning. Still, Nevin does what she can, massaging his legs every day, hoping they will respond, and feeding him despite his lack of appetite.
But living in poverty and displacement, Nevin struggles to meet even the most basic needs.
“My son needs clean, filtered water, but with my large family, I can’t afford to buy bottled water regularly,” she shares.
In tears, Nevin said: “I just want my son to recover, whether through treatment abroad or here in Gaza. But no one seems to care at the moment, and I am helpless as a mother. All I can do is hope that he will recover somehow.”