Residents of Philly region grieve for loved ones in Israel and Gaza as war intensifies

Israeli American Danielle Gutman, of Wynnewood, waited in anguish this week for news from southern Israel, where two relatives, including a 12-year-old boy, were reportedly taken hostage by Hamas on Saturday.

Word of retaliatory bombings in the Gaza strip had reached Allentown by Monday, when Palestinian American Nagi Latefa learned that his cousin, a taxi driver in Gaza, had been killed by an Israeli airstrike while seeking shelter in the Khan Yunis neighborhood.

In the dread-filled hours since Hamas invaded Israel on Saturday, Philadelphia-area residents with relatives in Israel and Gaza were devastated as the largest conflict since the 1973 Yom Kippur War unfolds nearly 5,700 miles away. And while many have seen this play out before, the brutality of the Hamas invasion and the expected ferocity of Israel’s military response have delivered a level of shock unseen in decades.

Israeli military officials said Wednesday that the Israeli death toll rose to 1,200, including 14 Americans, while the Palestinian Health Ministry reported more than 1,050 dead in Gaza.

Thousands more have been wounded, while upward of 150 Israelis remain hostages. Among the missing from Israel are at least 20 American citizens, including two former New Jersey residents: Edan Alexander, a 19-year-old Israeli soldier, and Laor Abramov, a 20-year-old aspiring DJ who was at a music festival in southern Israel when Hamas attacked.

For many, the days pass with eyes glued to Arabic- and Hebrew-language news outlets, fingers refreshing social media feeds and WhatsApp chats for the latest news from loved ones. Relatives have launched fundraisers, wracked with anguish as they seek for ways to help their families on the front lines.

Gutman, 38, who works as a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, said her sister-in-law’s cousin and his family were among those first hit by the Saturday invasion in southern Israel.

Ohad Yahalomi, his wife, Bat-Sheva, and their three children barricaded themselves in their home in Nir Oz, a kibbutz less than two miles from the Gaza border. Hamas stormed homes in the small agricultural enclave, shooting indiscriminately and taking hostages, according to Israeli outlet Walla News.

Ohad was reportedly shot in the leg before militants took him away on a motorcycle, while the couple’s 12-year-old son, Eitan, was taken away on another bike, last seen heading toward Gaza, Gutman said.

Bat-Sheva managed to flee, “running barefoot with her two daughters in her arms” until she was rescued by an Israeli officer.

Ohad and Eitan’s status remained unknown as of Wednesday evening, the family said.

“We know he was shot and he was at the house with them, but we don’t know where he is now, and if he’s alive or dead, or if he’s in Gaza,” Gutman said, of Ohad. “We just don’t know.”

Meanwhile, in northern Israel, Gutman’s parents and sister prepared to take shelter Wednesday as fighting intensified near the Lebanon border.

Her phone pinged nonstop with similarly nightmarish stories from Israeli friends — one whose nephew was killed; another friend’s cousin remains missing. She never knows whether the next message will come with hope or horror.

“It’s everywhere, and it’s unimaginable,” Gutman said. “Israelis, we’re all connected, by one or two degrees of separation,” she said, “so when one of us is hurting all of us are hurting.”

Israeli air strikes on the walled-off Gaza Strip have intensified over the first five days of war, while Israeli military officials mount a ground offensive that experts say will dramatically accelerate casualties on both sides.

Among the earliest victims was Shehda Abu Latefa, whom cousin Nagi Latefa called a caring family man.

“He is not a Hamas guy. This is a poor man who works as a taxi driver to make ends meet, who was sitting there and got killed by an F-16,” Latefa said. “He has a wife, he has children, he has loved ones, he is a human.”

The last time Latefa, 58, saw his cousin Shehda was in January, on a rare trip back to his homeland for a family funeral. The two cousins took the children out to play soccer.

Shehda Latefa was trying to flee the family’s neighborhood of Abasan al-Saghira, four miles from where Israelis were besieged by Hamas on Saturday, when he was killed, his cousin said.

Other family members have already been displaced — including his 83-year-old mother, who is now without medication. Few Gazans have time to pack suitcases before air strikes begin, Latefa said: “You leave with whatever is on your shoulders, and a lot of people don’t have a lot to start with.”

Communication with other family has been muffled since Israel cut off electricity, food, and other supplies to Gaza in response to the attack. Long swaths of the day go by with no contact, said Latefa, who came to the U.S. in 1984 when he was just 19 and lived in Philadelphia before moving to Allentown.

He said a disproportionate number of innocent Gazans would likely die in the war — a dynamic born out by past conflicts. The coastal strip, which covers roughly the same square mileage as Philadelphia, has been under blockade since 2007, and residents have few options to flee the escalating violence after the Israeli military bombed the Egyptian border crossing on Tuesday.

“We have had enough blood, enough tears, enough killing, enough crying,” Latefa said. “There are children under that rubble. There is suffering and pain. Don’t dehumanize it.”

The Philadelphia region is home to advocates representing all angles of the increasingly complex Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On Sunday, more than 200 marched through Center City in support of Palestinians. A thousand-plus rallied in Wynnewood on Monday evening to mourn the Israeli victims and hear from elected officials such as Gov. Josh Shapiro, who echoed fellow Democrats in their unequivocal support of Israel and condemned Hamas.

Local Jewish community leaders said they remain focused on helping their loved ones, even as the familiar ideological divides reemerge between camps.

“Everyone is free to do whatever they want,” Marcia Bronstein, regional director of the American Jewish Committee in Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, said at Monday’s rally for Israel. “But in terms of how we’re interacting, we’re here to show support for Israel.”

Family members with relatives close to the violence struggle to find ways to help. Gutman has taken to fundraising, creating an Amazon wishlist to send care packages to the Israeli military and people who have been displaced back home.

For Latefa, he said raising awareness about what he called the decades-long oppression in the Israeli-occupied territories of Palestine is one of the few ways he believes that he can help.

“I’m here living the dream in Allentown, and my family and loved ones are living a nightmare,” he said. “I just feel so guilty, and as crazy as it sounds, I wish I could be home with my mother and sister, to hug them and to comfort them.”