Israel-Palestine conflict: Names on a scrap of paper show impact of Gaza war on a US family

In blue ink on a scrap of white paper that sits on his desk, Jehad Adwan scribbles the names and ages of his wife's relatives.

Next to five names, he writes “killed” or simply, “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 said in an interview.

The family’s plight reflects the far reach of the war for Palestinian and Israeli families around the world.

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For Adwan, even the blast at a hospital in Gaza had a personal connection. It was the place where he trained to become a nurse before moving to the US and becoming a nursing professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Adwan and his wife, Fatma Abumousa, found out on Sunday that five of her relatives were killed, and another five were injured, after a bomb hit her family's multigenerational home in Khan Younis, a southern city and decades-old refugee camp in Gaza.

Abumousa said she first saw on the instant messaging app Telegram — in channels that Gaza journalists have been posting to — that her hometown was hit, then that it was her neighbourhood. Finally, she saw her family’s address.

“She woke me up. She was very upset and distraught. Very scared and crying,” said Adwan, 54, while helping Abumousa, 41, translate from Arabic to English.

Abumousa confirmed with surviving family in Gaza that three of her nephews — ages 6, 7 and 18 — were killed and have been buried, along with 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 loved calligraphy and building computers, Adwan said. The family had hoped he could study 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 just moved from northern Gaza to the southern city to avoid danger after Israel ordered about 1 million people in northern Gaza to evacuate.

“Unfortunately, that didn't help him,” Adwan said.

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