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Raleigh family loses dozens to Gaza violence

A Raleigh family with relatives in Gaza reflects the human face behind the fighting there.

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RALEIGH, N.C. — A Raleigh family with relatives in Gaza reflects the human face behind the fighting.

Nazeeha Asad, came to the Triangle from Gaza City in the 1980s. Her daughter, Amani Asad, said she has been glued to the television watching the increasing chaos in her homeland.

"It was all over every channel," Amani Asad said of reports of the exchange of airstrikes between the Israeli army and Hamas.

Official reports are that 630 Palestinians and 29 Israelis — 27 soldiers and two civilians – have been killed over 15 days of fighting.

More than a dozen of those deaths were her relatives, Amani Asad said.

"She just started yelling. She just started yelling and crying," Asad said of her mother. "She recognized the house. They showed it demolished."

Nazeeha Asad saw her family's home in Gaza blown apart by an explosion. In all, 20 members of her family were dead, including a child younger than two.

"She said they were pulling bodies from under the rubble by hand, themselves moving the rubble and pulling out bodies," Amani Asad described.  

Some of what her mother told her was emotionally hard for her to translate. Taking a deep breath, Amani Asad continued, "She said one of the family members, all they had was her hand."

The Asads don't know where their surviving Palestinian relatives are or how they are doing.

All they can do it watch international news reports and pray for peace.

"I don't sleep. I am always watching," Nazeeha Asad said. 

 

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