Chicago-area Palestinian Americans overwhelmed by grief as family members face death and destruction in Gaza

Two rows of men sat in near silence, ignoring the plates of dates on offer inside the Mosque Harlem Center in Bridgeview, Illinois, as the first snow of the year fluttered outside the window.

Others trickled in, by twos and threes to embrace Mohammed Aburealh, who was mourning more than 30 extended family members killed days earlier by Israeli bombs dropped during fighting between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.

Aburealh’s relatives are some of the more than 11,000 Palestinians who have been killed since Oct. 7. Among his deceased relatives were school principals, a physician and his wife, a medical student and a 2-year-old.

When he spoke to reporters at the azza, or condolence gathering, for his extended family, Aburealh said Americans do not understand who the dead are.

“The people who are being slaughtered are not Hamas; they are children,” he said.

Two-thirds of those killed in Gaza are children and women, according to United Nations agencies and experts,.”