It’s a priority for the ICRC to help people maintain links with their families in times of conflict. Special assistance is provided for the most vulnerable, such as those with special needs, the blind, children, women and the elderly. In 2013, six blind people from the West Bank were helped by ICRC to visit their families in the Gaza Strip. One of them is 48-year-old Mariam Al’Otol. She was born in Jabalia in Gaza and became blind at the age of 20. Today she works at a medicine factory in the packing section. Mariam’s father died in July 2005 and she is now responsible for her elderly mother and her sister in Gaza. With the help of the ICRC, Mariam visits her loved ones once or twice every year.

Watch the story of her crossing to Gaza: