STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Every day is an agonizing waiting game for Najla Khass, of New Springville, whose brother-in-law, aunts, uncles and cousins remain in Gaza as the Israel-Hamas war enters its sixth week.
“We’re mummies,” she said, reflecting on her day-to-day, all-consuming worry about family members in the city of Khan Yunis.
“We go to work, and it’s like you’re numb,” she said. “You worry … did I lose my uncle? Did I lose my cousin? Who did I lose today?”
Khass, 43, said her family is scattered, having migrated north of Gaza to “safety,” seeking refuge in schools and in the homes of those who’ve offered to shelter them.
“They’re all over the place,’’ she said. Details about their whereabouts and safety are spotty, she added, coming from various outlets, including members of other Palestinian American families who’ve heard reports from their own families in Gaza.
Her mother, a New Jersey resident, has lost 40 relatives to the ongoing war, where battles around hospitals have forced thousands of Palestinians to flee from some of the last perceived safe places in northern Gaza. Health officials told the Associated Press last week that critically wounded patients, newborns and their caregivers are stranded, with dwindling supplies and no electricity.
The fighting was triggered by an Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, a militant organization governing more than 2 million Palestinians along the Gaza Strip, according to national news media reports.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military raided Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, conducting a “precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area” of the facility, according to the Associated Press.
And on Monday, heavy fighting erupted around Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, as Israel’s military expands its ground assault on the Palestinian enclave, according to national media reports.
Health officials there said the death toll has surpassed 13,000 after weeks of…
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