For this Minnesotan, having family in Gaza means thinking of them ‘every bite we eat’
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The United Nations says Gaza is approaching famine. At least 60,000 Gazans have been killed since the conflict began less than three years ago, and 18,000 were children.
International outrage over the war is growing. This week, President Donald Trump even broke with Israeli President Netanyahu to say he agrees starvation is happening in Gaza.
Minnesotan Raghda Skeik was born and raised in Gaza, and has been watching this all from her Minnetonka home. She evacuated her parents into Egypt, but her siblings still live in Gaza.
MPR News host Emily Reese asked Skeik what life has been like for her family.
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A transcript of their conversation is below, edited for time and clarity. Press play above to listen.
How do you handle the trauma and stress of being so far away?
I’ve never stopped thinking about them. My family here is a small family, my husband and my kids. We think about them every moment, every bite we eat, knowing that they are hungry. Even when the storm we had here in Minnesota, my kids screamed in the dark, and I was like, “We just can’t handle, you know, a little bit of darkness.”
And there are people on the other side of the globe, they’re just living in the nightmare and darkness and hunger for nearly two years now.
What do you want people to know about what your family is going through?
It’s not only my family. Everyone in Gaza. They’re still living and in horrible, horrible situations. Nothing available, food-wise, electricity, water. How can we transform pasta to make it as bread? Or how can we recycle water as much as we can to for more efficient way to use it for cooking, bathing, washing dishes, washing clothes? My mind still cannot comprehend all of it.
A couple of my sisters, they developed some sort of an asthma thing because they keep just using firewood and breathing all the fumes and ashes, just to prepare a few bites for their families. It’s unlivable, it’s inhumane. Literally.
There have been big international organizations lately, including the United Nations, that are reporting widespread malnutrition and starvation in Gaza. President Trump this week even broke with Israeli President Netanyahu and acknowledged seeing signs of starvation. Does that bring any comfort?
To me, it’s laughable. It will not bring any comfort. Yes, people started to voice out and acknowledge that there’s a famine going on, but it has been going for more than a year and a half now.
Yes, President Trump and, you know, big leaders, they are trying to voice out that, OK, we need to help out. There’s starvation, people are dying, but at the same time, watching people getting targeted and killed while receiving this aid.
It’s time to stop it. We need more of these efforts. Not only talks, actions as well. They’re still targeting people. The genocide is still going on, and more work needs to be done.
