AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): As the death toll rises in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian-Canadians in Ottawa are holding gatherings to support each other and remember their loved ones who have died in Israeli raids.
The Israeli regime continues relentless airstrikes on the besieged Gaza Strip which has so far killed more than 4,600 people, mostly women and children. The attacks come following an unprecedented surprise attack by Hamas against Israeli-occupied territories that killed more than 1,400 Israeli soldiers and settlers.
Gaza, home to 2.3 million people, is under siege and facing shortages of food, water, and electricity. This is while according to the UN figures, almost half of the population have been displaced since the start of the war.
‘Devastating’
Among the victims are relatives of Maha Buhisi, who lives in Ottawa but has family ties to Deir El Balah, a city in central Gaza. On Oct. 12, she learned that her uncle, her cousin, and her cousin's two-year-old daughter were killed by an Israeli bomb while they were playing outside their house, CBC News reported.
"It was devastating," Buhisi said. "We're just praying for the time that there's a ceasefire."
Buhisi's family hosted a condolence event at a mosque in Barrhaven last weekend, where people came to offer their sympathy and solidarity. But since then, the number of Palestinian-Canadian families in Ottawa who have lost relatives has grown to at least 19, according to Jerusalem Community Services of Ontario, a local organization that assists Palestinians in Canada and abroad.
The organization organized a mass condolence gathering on Saturday night at the Mercy Mosque's community centre.
It was the first time that such an event was held since the group was founded in the 1990s. The aim was to help people cope with the trauma and grief of losing their loved ones.
‘Worse than nightmare’
"We need to be there for each other," said Ala Abu Alkheir, a co-organizer of the event. "Losing one beloved person is already a catastrophe … losing 10 is unthinkable. But the numbers we have been hearing of over the past few days are worse than a nightmare."
The event featured two rows of chairs facing each other: one for representatives of the grieving families, who wore scarves with the Palestinian flag's colours, and one for visitors. A whiteboard listed the names of the 19 families in Arabic, while volunteers served coffee and dates and speakers addressed the crowd.
A family that lost 77 relatives
Hala Alshaer was one of the speakers. She also lives in Ottawa and has roots in Gaza. Her father is from Rafah and her mother is from Khan Younis, two cities in southern Gaza that have been heavily bombed by Israel.
Alshaer said her family has lost 77 relatives in the conflict, ranging from one to 61 years old.
"My cousins are sleeping with their kids in the kitchen where there are no windows, so that they don't get hurt by flying glass if their building gets hit," she said. "They say that if they are going to die, they would rather die together as a family."
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The organization plans to hold two more mass condolence gatherings on Oct. 28 and Nov. 4. Abu Alkheir hopes that by then, the situation in Gaza will have improved.
"Hopefully, we end up cancelling them," he said.
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