(Chicago, IL, 2/14/2024) - The Chicago Office of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) the largest civil rights and advocacy organization in the nation, will hold a press conference on Thursday, February 15, at 11a.m., with Palestinian American families from the Chicagoland area whose family members, including US citizens, in Gaza have been kidnapped and/or are experiencing starvation. Families plan to share detailed accounts, photos, and videos from their families in Gaza. Also speaking will be Chicagoland physicians who just returned from a medical mission in Gaza. 

WHAT: Press Conference Addressing Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza  

WHEN: Thursday, February 15, 2024, at 11:00 AM  

WHERE: CAIR-Chicago's Azima Center, 17 North State Street, Suite 1500, Chicago, IL 60602  

WHO: Chicago-area Gaza families (see below), returning doctors from Gaza   

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has topped 28,000. Recent events have exacerbated the crisis.  Israeli forces are currently threatening a ground invasion of the “safe city” of Rafah where a million Palestinians have been recently displaced into from the north; the US and the UN are warning that this would unleash a humanitarian disaster. 

SEE: ‘There will be massacres’: Palestinians in Rafah speak of their fears 

Families Sharing Their Stories: 

• Nabil’s family, residing in Rafah, is barely subsisting on one meal per day, facing the looming threat of an Israeli ground invasion. Their survival hangs in precarious balance.  

• William’s family, with 25 members seized by Israeli soldiers, remains in anguish, their whereabouts unknown. Those left behind struggle to find sustenance, resorting to drinking muddy puddles due to scarcity of clean water.  

• Dr. Thaer Ahmad, recently returned from Gaza, will address the fate of malnourished Palestinian children hospitals besieged by attacks.  

• Dr. Yasser, a pediatrician and parent, will shed light on the extent of ufolding starvation in Gaza.  

• Family of Borak and Hashem, two young American Citizens from Chicago’s West suburbs who went missing after being kidnapped by the IDF from their home in Gaza.

END 

CONTACT: Ahmed Rehab, Executive Director of CAIR Chicago, 202-870-0166, arehab@cair.com; Maggie Slavin, Operations Manager of CAIR-Chicago, 815-590-3991, mslavin@cair.com; Erin P.R. Davis, MCM, Communications Coordinator of CAIR-Chicago, 773-802-8786, epdavis@cair.com , Eman, 646-302-3149