Here are LinkedIn posts by Hani Almadhoun, Senior Director of Philanthropy at UNRWA USA, and co-founder of the Gaza Soup Kitchen, and Mara Kronenfeld, Executive Director, UNRWA USA.
My maternal cousin, Ismail Almadhoun (his father and my mother were siblings), lost his life today at the hands of Israel’s war criminals. He now joins his two brothers, who were killed months ago. His father also passed away more than a year ago due to lack of medical care for his kidneys. May they all rest in peace.
Ismail had moved his family to a “safer” part of town. He returned to collect the few belongings they still had—a pillow, a mattress, a teapot—and while he was inside, the building was bombed.
The injustice is written in books, the sorrow sinks ships, and yet the perpetrators still act as if they are untouchable. No one else in this world agrees with them, and still… no one steps in—705 days into this genocide.
My colleague and brother Hani Almadhoun has experienced loss like few of us on LinkedIn can bring ourselves to imagine.
Two of his brothers were targeted and killed in this genocide on Gaza. Countless cousins bombed. Hundreds of relatives killed by quadcopter (yes, a drone operated by an individual that works as a bullet spewing killing machine), burned alive by incendiary bombs, genocided by airstrikes, by forced famine, and while seeking aid from GHF.
You know what the saddest thing is, while we can’t imagine his pain — tens of thousands of families in Gaza can. Hani and his family have nothing to do with any militancy. They are just like every family I personally met when I visited Gaza in 2022; like every family in Gaza I see across my social media feeds — crying, shaking uncontrollably, and pleading for the world to make this stop.
This could have been you or me and our families in an alternate universe. Now it is Hani Almadhoun and his family.
How many times can a heart break? 💔
Postscript: Please consider donating to UNRWA USA and/or Gaza Soup Kitchen to support their livesaving work in Gaza.
An International Educator in Vietnam 