CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) --Local Muslim leaders and Palestinian-Americans with family in Gaza described a worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where they say Israel is using "starvation as a weapon."
They want increased supplies to the region, and say that Israel is withholding entrance of aid into Gaza, while the U.S. considers more military funding for Israel.
At the press conference in the Loop, Dr. Yasser Said, who is a pediatrician, also added the perspective that children suffering from hunger in Gaza now, will be impacted both physically and emotionally for the rest of their lives.
"The first thing that will happen with Gazan children is that they will get tummy aches and headaches. Their skin will wither away and their growth will stop," he explained.
"Gazan children will be shorter than children in other countries. They'll be less emotionally-developed. They will carry those scars for the rest of their life."
Said also criticized President Joe Biden's policies regarding this issue.
"I'm absolutely appalled by the racist policies of the Biden administration that allow an avalanche of malnutrition and starvation committed by Israel on Gaza to happen," he said.
"If these children were white children, would we stand idly by and let their little bodies wither away? Because they're children in Gaza and Sudan and the DRC? Is that why it's okay that their little brown and black bodies will just turn into nothing to dust?"
Council on American Islamic Relations Chicago executive director Ahmed Rehab said that a ceasefire in Gaza is still necessary. He calls criticism of this demand, “shameful”.
"We can't say stop killing innocent human beings. That's offensive," ? he questioned.
"People say this is anti-semitic. This is pro-Hamas. This is supporting families. This is not hating anyone. This is loving life-loving your children, loving your mother, father, and siblings."
Rehab added that there are still no updates concerning two young Palestinian- American men from Lombard who have been detained by Israel. Israel claims these men has been arrested for collusion with Hamas. Advocates for their release say that nothing has been shown to justify their captivity.
Several locals describe losing dozens, even hundreds of family members now four months into Israel's retaliatory push to destroy Hamas in Gaza.
Hoda Shuvair is a mother of four whose family has been in Gaza for more than 800 years. She said her father was a retired professor who taught immunology and urology and her mother was an advocate for women's rights.
"Why would Israel kill such beautiful souls," she said.
"I hope (Benjamin) Netanyahu is listening. I will never forgive him for killing my family. I will never forgive my president-Biden for giving Israel weapons to kill my family in Gaza and I will never vote for him again."
Israel initiated the war after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack from Gaza into southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people, and some 250 others were taken hostage.
The death toll in Gaza has surpassed 28,000, according to the Associated Press.
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