'Cold, sick, hungry': Phoenix resident says his relatives in Gaza are barely surviving
Mohamed El-Sharkawy, who has four nieces living in Gaza, said his heart was racing when he heard that scores of Palestinians had been killed trying to get food and supplies from an aid convoy on Thursday, the latest carnage in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
El-Sharkawy hasn't heard from his nieces in Gaza. But he does not believe they were involved in the melee in Gaza City, which killed 112 Palestinians and injured more than 700 people after Israeli troops reportedly opened fire on people swarming vehicles bringing food and supplies, setting off a stampede in which many people were reportedly trampled.
El-Sharkawy said he would have heard by now from his two sisters, the mothers of his four nieces in Gaza, if they had been hurt. One sister lives in Spain, the other in Florida.
"My sisters are more in touch with them than I am, because it's their kids. So if something goes bad, then I would have heard from my sisters," El-Sharkawy said.
El-Sharkawy spoke to The Arizona Republic in December about his efforts to enlist the help of members of Arizona's congressional delegation to evacuate his four nieces and their families from Gaza amid the conflict, which he said had killed 50 members of his extended family.
The death toll in Gaza has reportedly exceeded 30,000 Palestinians. Israel launched a full-scale war in response to the Oct. 7 attacks against Israel by Hamas, which killed 1,200.
In a telephone interview on Friday, El-Sharkawy provided an update.
He said he continues to regularly contact the offices of U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton and U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, both Democrats, for help evacuating his relatives in Gaza, but so far the efforts have been unsuccessful.
Kelly spokesperson Alexander Wood said in an email that Kelly's office "has remained in close contact with Mr. El-Sharkawy. Sen. Kelly has also spoken directly to State Department officials about what more can be done to get civilians out of Gaza."
Stanton's office did not immediately respond to a request for an update.
Meanwhile, El-Sharkawy said his nieces and their families remain stuck in Rafah, in southern Gaza, where they fled in November after their homes in Gaza City were destroyed by bombs. Rafah is about 20 miles from Gaza City, where Thursday's melee occurred.
El-Sharkawy said conditions have gotten much worse since December amid fears of an imminent ground assault on Rafah by Israeli forces.
"They are not doing well," said El-Sharkawy, 63, a Phoenix resident who has lived in the U.S. for nearly 40 years but grew up in Gaza. "They are very cold, sick and hungry."
El-Sharkawy said he communicates with his nieces in Gaza through WhatsApp, a messaging phone app. But he said his contact with them is only sporadic because the electricity is often cut off.
"They have to wait for the electricity to come on and from there they can charge their phones and connect to Wi-Fi," El-Sharkawy said.
His relatives in Gaza include 10 children, and the youngest is 1.
The last time he heard from them was on Wednesday, when they wrote to thank him for some prescription medications. El-Sharkawy arranged for the medications to be delivered from Cairo, Egypt, to Gaza through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the main organization supplying aid to people in Gaza.
One medication is to treat a rash for one of the children. Another is for a stomach ulcer and another is for a colon problem for two adults.
His nieces told him they are living without the most basic necessities.
"They can't find any baby formula for the babies," El-Sharkawy said. "Of course, there is no diapers, or anything like that. Water is very hard to get by. Sometimes they collect the rainwater to wash their clothes and wash the babies. Sometimes they go weeks without bathing. They don't have any winter clothes, or some jackets for the kids."
El-Sharkawy said he doesn't know the full scope of their conditions because he avoids asking too many questions.
"I'm afraid to ask, to be honest with you," El-Sharkawy said. "Because I don't want to know the answers. Sometimes not knowing, it's easier because if I knew they are not eating, it's just too much on me. I'm trying to block some stuff."
He said worrying about his relatives in Gaza also has taken a toll on him and his family in the U.S.
"I haven't been able to get a good night's sleep," El-Sharkawy said. "I wake up with nightmares. I dream that I am there with them. I wake up sweaty and I cannot go back to sleep."
How is he coping?
"It's been really difficult. Sometimes I break down," he said. "Sometimes I talk to my wife. We kind of encourage each other. We're doing lots of prayers."
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix resident: Relatives in Gaza are 'cold, sick, hungry'
