BLAINE, Minn. – In blue ink on a scrap of white paper that sits on his table, Jehad Adwan scribbles the names and ages of his spouse’s family.
Next to 5 names, he writes “killed” or just, “K.” Beside another five, he marks “injured” or “I.”
With every news report, social media post and conversation with a relative, he’s keeping track — from his suburban Minneapolis home — of the toll the Israel-Hamas war is taking on his family, and his wife’s family, in Gaza.
“What is preoccupying my brain, my everything, is just the fear of what’s going to happen next,” he mentioned in an interview.
The family’s plight displays the a long way achieve of the war for Palestinian and Israeli households around the world.
For Adwan, even the blast at a health facility in Gaza had a non-public connection. It was once where the place he skilled to turn out to be a nurse earlier than shifting to the U.S. and turning into a nursing professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Adwan and his spouse, Fatma Abumousa, came upon Sunday that 5 of her family had been killed, and some other 5 had been injured, after a bomb hit her family’s multigenerational house in Khan Younis, a southern town and decades-old refugee camp in Gaza.
Abumousa mentioned she first noticed on the moment messaging app Telegram — in channels that Gaza newshounds had been posting to — that her native land was once hit, then that it was once her group. Finally, she noticed her family’s deal with.
“She woke me up. She was very upset and distraught. Very scared and crying,” mentioned Adwan, 54, whilst serving to Abumousa, 41, translate from Arabic to English.
Abumousa showed with surviving family in Gaza that 3 of her nephews — ages 6, 7 and 18 — had been killed and had been buried, at the side of her sister-in-law, 42, and cousin, 40.
“Little by little, through the morning, we learned all the details,” Adwan said.
Hmaid, the 18-year-old nephew, was a “brilliant student” who cherished calligraphy and development computer systems, Adwan mentioned. The family had was hoping he may find out about engineering in Germany.
Yusuf and Abdelrahman, the 6- and 7-year-olds, loved going to school and spending time with family. Hiba, their mother and Abumousa’s sister-in-law, was an architect and novelist.
And Hani, Abumousa’s cousin, had simply moved from northern Gaza to the southern town to keep away from risk after Israel ordered about 1 million people in northern Gaza to evacuate.
“Unfortunately, that didn’t help him,” Adwan said.
Abumousa said through tears that she wants to stop losing people. She had planned to visit her parents in Gaza this month so they could meet her nearly 2-year-old son, Yaman. But now, she said, everything has changed.
Adwan said he wishes media reports would humanize Palestinians as much as they humanize Israelis.
“The Israeli side is being covered excessively. Their stories are told, their names are mentioned, their hobbies are listed,” Adwan mentioned. “We are not just numbers,” he said of Palestinians.
Above all else, Adwan said he wants others to know this: “The Palestinian people want, demand and deserve freedom and equal human rights, like everyone in the world. Period.”
Praying for the best and preparing for the worst, he tucks away the family’s list.
On Friday afternoon, five days after learning of the bombing that killed Abumousa’s relatives, Adwan said in a message to The Associated Press that 18 people — including nephews, nieces and neighbors — are thought to have been injured from the same bombing. “We learn more every day,” he mentioned.
He hasn’t added their names to the record but.
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Trisha Ahmed is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter: @TrishaAhmed15
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