FARGO – From a sun-drenched living room in southern Fargo to the bombed-out ruins of a seventh-floor apartment in northern Gaza, two families have formed a friendship.
Dina Fareed Jendeya and Karan Jendeya live with their four children in the rubble of their house in Gaza.
Every day is a struggle for survival.
“We just hope the war ends and try to rebuild our lives the way they were,” Jendeya told The Forum.
On the other side of the world, Heidi and Mahmoud Soliman, together with other residents of the big city, are collecting money to feed Palestinian children like Hala, Jenna, Tala and Anis Jendeya.
The Solimans of Fargo are calling on their neighbors to donate to the Feed a Child in Gaza program through the Maal Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by two Fargo doctors.
“We are not feeding 60,000 people, but a family of six,” said Heidi Soliman. “We are feeding children there who would otherwise have starved.”
“We have exhausted all our dreams”
Fareed Jendeya and Jendeya’s family were not at home when Israeli forces dropped the bombs that leveled most of their neighborhood, killing residents and destroying the school, mosque and almost everything in sight.
Many people died in this attack, said Mahmoud Soliman.
“One hundred people were killed so cruelly that there are not even intact bodies left,” said Mahmoud Soliman. “One man picked up his child and they gave him a bag full of meat; 20 pounds of meat.”
The current war between Israel and Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas – the military group that governs the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – attacked Israeli communities, killing 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage, according to Reuters. The conflict between Israel and Hamas dates back well before 2023.
Since October, Israel has killed at least 40,000 people and displaced almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents from their homes through extensive bombings and other military operations in an effort to wipe out Hamas, Reuters reported.
Jendeya’s family of six returned to their apartment after the bombing, shocked to find their once beautiful home filled with rubble from collapsed walls and the building teetering on its foundations, just one blast away from collapse.
“Alhamdulillah” was the term Jendeya used most frequently when he spoke to The Forum via video chat in August.
In Arabic, this expression is used to express gratitude to God.
“It is our faith in God that keeps us going,” Fareed Jendeya told The Forum. Most of the family’s comments were translated by Mahmoud Soliman.
Jendeya’s wife and children would have been dead if the family had been at home when the bomb hit, he said.
To protect their makeshift sleeping quarters from the worst of the weather, the parents laid out fabric and built a small stove.
Their first question in the morning is how they will feed their children.
There is very little food on the market and what is available is astronomically expensive due to food shortages throughout the Gaza Strip.
“To be honest, they have been eating grass for some time,” said Mahmoud Soliman. “Grass, animal feed, animals that you don’t normally even eat because the situation there is very bad now.”
Contributed / Dina Fareed Jendeya and Karan Jendeya
With the money sent by Fargo residents through Feed a Child in Gaza, the family buys food and even treats their children to the luxury of a glass of milk to celebrate Anis’ seventh birthday.
Since Israel began laying siege to Gaza following the Hamas attack in October, the amount of food available to Palestinians in Gaza has dwindled, and the United Nations says famine is an imminent threat.
“I have ordered a complete siege of the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in October, according to The Times of Israel. “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”
The international community has not done enough to end the suffering of the Palestinian civilian population, said Mahmoud Soliman.
According to USA Today, the United States has sent daily shipments of weapons and ammunition to Israel since the war began, while the United Nations has struggled to get food and medicine through Israeli barricades to sick and starving Palestinians, according to Reuters.
The streets in northern Gaza are empty and the devastated urban landscape stretches as far as the eye can see.
“We lost everything,” 12-year-old Jenna told the forum. “We lost people, including family and friends. We lost our toys. We lost all our schools.”
She just wants her life to be the way it was before the war.
They weren’t afraid of that, Jenna said, and they never went hungry. They went to the park and to the sea. Gaza was beautiful.
Now?
The family is getting thinner and thinner while Israeli drones and bombs roar outside. An end to this conflict seems a long way off.
“We’ve exhausted all our dreams,” Jenna said. “Our plans are gone.”
“Need your help to buy groceries”
Throughout the Palestinians’ interview with The Forum, a continuous drone noise could be heard in the background.
At night, the planes fly lower and the noise keeps the family awake, Jendeya said, leaving them exhausted and nervous.
Fareed Jendeya and Jendeya’s perfume and makeup shop has not opened its doors since October and none of the children have been able to go to school.
As the family spoke to The Forum, 13-year-old Hala ripped pages from a nearly empty book to start a fire.
Contributed / Dina Fareed Jendeya and Karan Jendeya
Hala is an avid reader and already knows a third of the Koran and many poems by heart. Jenna loves to cook and 10-year-old Tala loves playing with her Barbie dolls.
The youngest, Anis, sat on his mother’s lap among the rubble and said his favorite subject in school was sports.
All their parents want is to be able to take them for a walk or to the beach without fear of snipers or missiles. And more importantly, they want to have enough money to buy food.
Local doctors help
Local assistance is provided through the Maal Foundation, a local nonprofit founded by Fargo physicians Dr. Mohamed Sanaullah and Eram Shahira.
They founded the Maal Foundation a year ago to provide preventative medicine and promote health and wellness in underprivileged communities in Minnesota and North Dakota.
“Our focus was never on Gaza from the beginning. We never imagined in our wildest dreams that we would go abroad,” Sanaullah said.
However, they saw the impact of the war in Gaza on the residents of the metropolis and decided to help. The families supported by the “Feed a Child in Gaza” program have ties to the local community.
All the money goes directly to families in Gaza, said Sanaullah. It takes $1,200 to feed a family of five or six for a month.
International organizations distribute food in Gaza, Shahira said, but it is not always safe or easily accessible. She mentioned that Israel killed seven World Central Kitchen employees in an airstrike in April.
In March, more than 100 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire in northern Gaza as they gathered around trucks carrying food aid, according to CNN. Hundreds more were injured.
It is unimaginable for a doctor to witness the hunger, disease and destroyed health system in the Gaza Strip without doing anything to alleviate human suffering, Shahira said.
Feed a Child in Gaza is searching the subway for more individuals and groups to sponsor starving children in Gaza, said Heidi Soliman.
“Together as a community, we can really change the lives of children and families in Gaza. … The difference between living and dying, hunger and food,” said Heidi Soliman. “I don’t want people to feel sorry for them. I want people to show compassion and act. I want people to see the humanity of Palestinians.”
Article / Feed a child in Gaza
If you would like to donate, you can do so at https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=ZR7FRM5Z38NJ2.
Readers with questions can contact Feed a Child in Gaza at [email protected].
For Fareed Jendeya and Jendeya, the support from Fargo residents goes beyond money and food. It shows them that the international community has not forgotten them and is doing everything it can to help.
“We have not lost two things (in the war): we have not lost our integrity and dignity, nor our hope and trust in God,” Jendeya said. “We depend on God for everything, but we ask God to send us people who can help us.”
