Palestinian Americans watch with dread as family members in Gaza struggle to stay alive
From her home office in Columbia, Maryland, El-Haddad frantically juggled phone calls this week from journalists seeking her expertise on Gaza and Palestinian Americans trying to get the attention of their local elected officials.
In between the calls, the 45-year-old mother and author checked WhatsApp, the global messaging application, for updates from her own family members in Gaza during their brief windows of electricity and internet access.
Electricity was since cut off by Israel and internet outages have made it difficult for many to keep in touch.
«I'm just trying to stay sane by doing what I can to help,» El-Haddad said.
For many Palestinian Americans, there's a sense of helplessness and hopelessness as they struggle to hear from loved ones in Gaza. Amid a fuel and water shortage, no electricity, and now a forced evacuation in the north, administering and sending aid to civilians in Gaza is near impossible.
Israel has bombarded Gaza with airstrikes for days and has threatened a ground invasion in response to Hamas' attack on Israel that killed 1,300 last weekend. The Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday that over 2,200 people have been killed in the besieged territory in the last several days, including 724 children and 458 women.
With a looming humanitarian crisis, that number is expected to rise.
But even before this week, getting to Gaza to visit family for Palestinian Americans was a lengthy, exhausting and difficult experience, and most people who live Gaza can never leave.
