Wafaa: “If you want to know how we’re doing—run blood tests on our children!”

"If you test my children’s blood, you’ll understand the pain, the illnesses, the unmet needs. When my children manage to have lunch, I thank God a hundred times. But there’s usually no dinner. They ask for things far beyond my means. I just wish someone in charge would read my story—take my son and daughter, assess their needs, check the shoes on their feet. My son’s shoes come from garbage piles, and on Eid, if we get a donation, we buy something. Even their clothes come from street vendors." Wafaa, a 40-year-old divorced mother of three from Hebron, was abandoned by her husband, who fled to Jordan to escape his financial obligations—and married another woman. She shares her distressing reality: “Just two days ago, I cooked the last lentils I received from the food voucher—five kilograms. It’s summer, no one eats lentils now. Is there anyone who doesn’t buy meat at least once a month? I have two brothers, two sisters, aunts, and uncles—if each gave me 50 shekels a month, I wouldn’t need to beg anyone. But instead, they say ‘Let God deal with her’.” Despite it all, Wafaa remains grateful—but not because she chose this life. “This isn’t the life I wanted. But I have no choice. I’m both mother and father to my children. I wish I could live like other dignified women. But that wasn’t written for me.” She does not regret filing for divorce. “I expected a decent marriage. But within a year, I found out he had a previous wife—and a history of fraud and debt. He claimed he went to Jordan for work, but he was really running from responsibility and marrying someone else. I was deceived.” Her voice trembling through tears, she concludes: “What I’m living now is better than living with him. A man who has no mercy on his own family can’t have mercy on anyone. He abandoned his children without support. They grew up without their father. My daughters became mothers before their time. Even when his own mother died, he didn’t come to her funeral. May God hold him accountable.”