San Jose man worried for family in Gaza after losing communication with them
More than two million Palestinians are facing a near-total blackout of phone and internet services following new airstrikes – with no contact with each other and the outside world.
Sami Almalfouh grew up in Gaza and has parents, siblings, nieces and nephews there. He has been living in the Bay Area for more than a decade working in the tech industry.
He's had a routine for the last few weeks. He wakes up and immediately messages his family in Gaza to see how they're doing. When he gets home from work, he messages them again.
"By the time I get back from work, it's their morning and I say 'How was your night?' These were the questions I was asking all the time," Almalfouh said.
That has quickly changed.
"I woke up this morning and I got news on WhatsApp from my brother and sister that there was a house in our neighborhood that was destroyed by an airstrike," he said.
Almalfouh received a video overnight into Friday morning in his family group chat. The neighborhood he grew up in is now unrecognizable. In the video, his father is walking through the rubble.
Almalfouh said the house in front of his parents was hit. His parent's living room window was damaged.
Almalfouh got a message saying they were okay, but he has not been able to contact them all day Friday. He's been trying to contact them via an international call and through WhatsApp. But there's been no answer.
"I don't know if they are alive or if their neighborhood hasn't been bombed. It's going to be very tough days ahead," he said.
He's thinking about all of his family, including his young nieces and nephews. He talked with one of them in recent days.
"I talked with one of my nephews, and I asked him 'Are you scared?' He said 'No, it's time to be a man.' He's 10. I told him 'Do you sleep at night?' He said 'No, it's very hard to sleep.' And I told him 'Be a big boy and don't worry and be safe.' But of course I'm not believing what I'm telling him because there's no place safe."
A couple of weeks ago, KPIX talked with Almalfouh. He said some of his family had fled south after Israel warned residents to evacuate northern Gaza for their own safety. He said they did at first but went back to northern Gaza.
"Because there was no difference between north and south. That's actually quite a fantasy that there is a safe zone. There's not a single neighborhood that's safe in Gaza," he said.
Now Almalfouh is left to constantly check his phone – hoping for word from his family.
"There is too many people that are being collectively punished for something that most of them – if not all of them – have nothing to do with," he said.
