Palestinians living in San Francisco worry for loved ones amid humanitarian crisis in Gaza
SAN FRANCISCO -- In the midst of escalating violence in Gaza, the local Palestinian community in San Francisco is living through an agonizing wait for news from their homeland.
Among them is Fuad Ateyeh, a 54-year resident of San Francisco and a refugee from Palestine, who finds himself haunted by the echoes of the past as he watches the crisis unfold.
"The images I see today are the same images we've seen for 75 years," said Ateyeh. "It makes me really sick. I'm frustrated…helpless. Because that's my people."
Like many others, Ateyeh is deeply concerned about the dire situation faced by Palestinians in Gaza.
"70% of those people in Gaza are refugees from 1948. And they can't go anywhere, because there's no place to go," he explained.
Gaza's residents are trapped without passports, food, or electricity, unable to escape the relentless bombardment. The United Nations has also raised alarms about the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian conditions.
Juliette Touma is Director of Communications at the The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
"The situation in Gaza has gone from bad to worse. The number of people who have fled their homes has doubled in the past 24 hours due to the airstrikes and heavy bombardments," she explained.
In San Francisco, the Arab Resource and Organizing Center is fielding numerous calls from concerned Palestinians wanting to know what actions can be taken to support their families back home.
"We are getting a lot of phone calls from Palestinians who are afraid about their families at home. People who want to know what can we do about this," said Waseem Hajj, a member of the center.
Adding to the distress is the severe communication blackout in Gaza. Israel's recent strikes on the headquarters of the private Palestinian Telecommunications Company have crippled landline telephone, internet, and mobile phone services, leaving families in the Bay Area anxiously waiting for any form of contact from their loved ones.
For Ateyeh and others like him, the suffering they have witnessed pales in comparison to the anguish currently experienced by those in Gaza.
As Israeli forces and tanks mobilize along the border, the fear of an imminent ground invasion looms large, intensifying the dread felt by the Palestinian diaspora.