TAMPA, Fla. — Abdelhai Abdelqader can't stop thinking about Palestine, where he has family.
“It brings a heavy heart every day. I’m not happy. I feel very sad at work, and it hurts,” he said.
The Sarasota medical doctor is thinking about the overrun hospitals in Gaza. As he admires his playful nieces and 5-month-old nephew, he can’t help but think about the children in Gaza who are in the middle of the chaos.
“Breaks my heart to see siblings next to one another — suffocating under a pile of rubble from a building,” he said.
Friday, those feelings fueled his trip from Sarasota to Downtown Tampa to be part of a “Gaza Solidarity” event.
Hundreds of Palestinians and their allies gathered outside Tampa City Hall to voice solidarity with Gaza.
“All we’re asking for is give dignity to each human and hold every — every — extreme group accountable,” said Imam Abdullah Jaber with the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) Florida.
After that news conference, they took their message to the streets and marched for almost an hour before ending at Courthouse Square for prayer.
Israel has said it has the right to retaliate and destroy Hamas after that group — which the United States considers a terrorist group — carried out the horrific surprise attack in Israel last Saturday.
The Hamas militants targeted Israeli civilians, including women, children, and babies.
Israel maintains that its response is aimed at military targets and tries hard to avoid civilian casualties.
The protesters in Tampa, however, said they think Israel’s response has been too heavy-handed: days of airstrikes and now the threat of a ground invasion. Gaza civilians are paying a big price.
“They really go to sleep not sure if they’re going to wake up to see the next day,” said Abdelqader.
If Hamas targets are truly embedded into civilian-dense areas, he said Israel should make a more earnest, concerted effort to get civilian refugees out of harm's way.
"They're essentially being entrapped from all borders," he said.
Can there ever be peace for the sake of innocent people, including children, on both sides?
Abdelqader hopes so, but it will be tough.
“Because both sides have lost innocent lives, and there’s a lot of inbred hatred. But there needs to be a ceasefire and that will hopefully follow with a longer peaceful interval,” he said.
