A Michigan couple stuck in Gaza have sued U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in hopes that American citizens like themselves are safely evacuated and brought back to the states, according to a lawsuit filed last week.
Zakaria Alarayshi and Laila Alarayshi have been stuck in Palestine ever since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing approximately 1,400 people and taking around 200 hostages. As of this writing, at least 5,100 Palestinians have been killed since the conflict began.
The Alaryashis left their home in Dearborn to visit family in Gaza for a couple of weeks, arriving on Oct. 5.
Now, they’re pleading with President Joe Biden for help to evacuate.
“He has to get me out from here,” Zakaria, 62, said in a video message posted on Facebook three days ago. “Life here is so bad. I can’t handle it here.”
Zakaria said that he has not been able to shower in 12 days and he and his family have been forced to drink salt water. Food is scarce, he continued. The house next to the one he’s residing in was recently bombed.
The day before filing their lawsuit, the couple tried to leave Palestine through the Egyptian border but were turned away by Egyptian authorities. On Oct. 21, the border between Egypt and Gaza opened briefly to allow about 20 trucks into Gaza carrying aid.
It has been closed since.
The lawsuit was filed in conjunction with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and Arab-American Civil Rights League in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
It alleges that not evacuating American citizens trapped in Gaza is a violation of their constitutional rights — specifically, a denial of equal protection, which is guaranteed under the 14th amendment.
Both organizations also filed a preliminary injunction seeking to have the court order the immediate evacuation of the couple as well as other Americans stuck in Gaza.
“Their lives are in grave danger from ongoing military action…
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