Fr. Boston Globe 10/17
They know they are most likely going to die’: Palestinian Americans in Mass. worry for loved ones in Gaza
Every morning for the past week, Heiam Alsawalhi has opened her eyes, grabbed her phone, and texted her younger sister to make sure she is still alive.
Alsawalhi, a Palestinian American who lives in Brookline, said her sister and her family, along with dozens of other relatives, are trapped in the Gaza Strip without electricity, clean water, and barely any food and internet connection as Israeli bombings increase ahead of an expected ground invasion.
“She is my baby sister, and she is the world to me,” Alsawalhi told the Globe Monday. “I’m living in fear.”
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza face an increasingly dire humanitarian crisis, with Israel barring entry of essential supplies in retaliation for last week’s deadly rampage by Hamas militants. Meanwhile in Massachusetts, those with family members stuck in the tiny territory move through day-to-day life filled with anguish.
Hazem Shafai, of Plymouth, and his family, are in limbo in southern Gaza, near the border with Egypt, according to Shafai’s brother, Hani, of Rapid City, S.D.
Hazem, his wife, Sanaa Shafai, and their three children, Seera, 13, Yomnah, 10, and Jaser, 2, were visiting Hazem’s father and stepmother on their farm 2 miles south of Gaza’s northern border when airstrikes began Oct. 7.
“It’s been really crazy for the kids; a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety,” Hani Shafai said. “And the parents are just as anxious and saddened by everything that is going on and that their children are being exposed to it.”
Shafai said that his extended family and his brother’s family left behind all of their belongings, including livestock, to travel to Gaza’s southern border to try to cross into Egypt, though they have been turned away twice.
“When I talk to my brother, it reminds me of the type of conversation that I’ve had with some of my older friends who are in hospice care,” Hani said. “They know they are most likely going to die, and they are giving me their last instructions: ‘This is what you should do with my kids if I die and forgive me if I’ve wronged you.’ ”
Hani said that he and his family are praying for peace and hope that “people can start living together and thinking of each other as humans.”
“I’m glad we’re condemning the action of terrorists, but we should do the same thing for the loss of innocent Palestinian lives on the other side,” he said.
Alsawalhi said her sister Mervat Alsawalhi, or “Miro,” is also in Rafah near the southern border with Egypt, after fleeing her home in northern Gaza after the Israeli military ordered more than 1 million people to evacuate.
Mervat Alsawalhi and her family, including her husband, three daughters, and grandson Jamal, were initially at home in Gaza City in the days following the Hamas attack.
Nearby, Heiam Alsawalhi said, her own former in-laws had their three-story home flattened in an airstrike, as well as other relatives’ homes. The bombardment was even worse at nighttime, Alsawalhi said.
“They don’t want people sleeping,” she said of Israeli’s military. “It’s a mental war, as well.”
Alsawalhi said her sister’s family attempted to heed Israel’s warning and evacuate to the south, but found no cars, fuel, or taxis available. They began to walk south along with other families carrying their children, but became exhausted and turned around.
On their way home, Alsawalhi said her sister saw “with her own eyes” an explosion Friday, for which Gaza authorities said Israel was responsible, that killed 70 people in convoys fleeing south. The next day, the family was able to get a ride to Rafah, where they are staying with friends, Alsawalhi said.
Though the bombardment is less constant in Rafah, even there a strike hit a building housing displaced families from Gaza City, killing at least 12.
“Wherever you are in Gaza is not a safe place,” Alsawalhi said.
The 139 square mile strip, often referred to by human rights advocates as “the world’s largest open-air prison,” is home to 2.3 million people and surrounded by blockades for 16 years by Israel and Egypt, restricting people’s movements.
Suhad Zendah, a Medford resident whose extended family lives in Gaza City, said all her younger family members with children are making their way south on foot, afraid of being targeted by airstrikes if they join vehicle convoys. Elderly relatives stayed behind, she said, and she has lost all contact with them.
“It’s hard to get sleep or rest or function normally,” Zendah said. “It feels like a nightmare. But then I open my eyes, and I realize that it’s still going on and it’s reality.”
Mahmoud Abdalrahman, 34, of Arlington, is the only member of his family who resides outside of Tal al-Hawa, a neighborhood in the southwest region of Gaza City.
Original article here
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