DENVER — Two months into the war between Israel and Hamas, Palestinian Americans in Denver are warning that civilians still in Gaza are paying the price as the war rages on.
Abdullah Elagha said he's lost dozens of family members since the war began. It's why he's been out every week side by side with other Palestinian Americans protesting and pushing for a lasting peace.
"The Palestinian community here is pretty small, we're small but mighty," Elagha said.
For the past few years, Elagha has called Denver home. Years earlier, he and his family moved to the U.S. from their ancestral home in Gaza.
"The majority of my extended family is still in Khan Yunis in the south of Gaza. And that's where my family has been for hundreds of years," Elagha said.
Now, half a world away, Elagha can only watch as his former home is hit by Israeli air strikes.
"When you hear things like the air strikes don't stop, they literally don't stop. They're constant," Elagha said. "We can’t really put ourselves in their shoes. And to us, it just becomes numbers and statistics and a thing that’s happening somewhere else. And it’s really hard for even me to wrap my head around and it’s happening to my family.”
Since the war between Israel and Hamas began, Elagha said more than 80 members of his family have died. Just this week, he said eight members of his family from seven to 76 years old were killed during an air strike.
"A few days ago, my mom spoke to one of our relatives there whose niece had been killed a few days ago. And she actually said she was grateful that her body was found in one piece. That's the type of thing people in Gaza are grateful for now," Elagha said. “These aren’t militants, these aren’t Hamas. They’re just people trying to live their lives who’ve been doing their best to make due with what they have."
It's a level of grief, he said, that's hard to comprehend for his family and others like it in Gaza, caught in the middle between Israel and Hamas.
"It's a collective grief that we're all facing, that we're feeling, that we're all trying to work through," Elagha said. "And I just hope that we get to the end soon."
That push for change and a lasting ceasefire is what drives Elagha and others to the streets in Denver, protesting every week since the war began. That drive to help those in Palestine is sparking movement from all races and religions here in Colorado and around the world.
"I do have a lot of hope for the movement in general, for the future. Unfortunately, for the near future it's kind of hard to be hopeful seeing the situation on the ground is just dire and abysmal and it doesn't seem like it's going to be stopping any time soon," Elagha said.
Elagha said he hopes that by spreading word of what's happening to those in Gaza, it will push U.S. and world leaders to take action and soon.
“I would really like for there to be a ceasefire so I can rest assured knowing that at the very least, my family won’t be killed by airstrikes. And then, I would like there to be more humanitarian aid so they aren’t killed from diseases or a lack of food, lack of water," Elagha said. "I feel very hopeful that with these continued concerted actions, it will make a difference. I just hope that that difference doesn't come too late."
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