DEARBORN – The Arab American Civil Rights League (ACRL) has urgently called on the Biden administration to exert an effort to save the lives of Zahra Sckak, the mother of an active U.S. military service member, and his American uncle, Farid Sukaik, both trapped in Northern Gaza.
Fadi Sckak has spent the last month making phone calls to congressional offices, urging someone to take action to bring his mother and uncle — a U.S. citizen — home to the United States. Fadi’s brother, Raji Sckak, an active duty member of the military currently stationed in South Korea, is hoping someone will listen to the family’s pleas for help.
“My mother is currently in Northern Gaza; she is sheltering in a building along with 100 of other civilians,” he said. “They have not had anything to eat or drink in over a week; she is dying.”
Advocates are racing against the clock to get President Biden to intervene.
“All we ask of Biden, as our commander-in-chief, is to not abandon a service member’s mother,” said Mariam Charara, ACRL’s executive director. “Raji Sckak took an oath to protect our country. Does that not mean anything to President Biden?”
My mother is currently in Northern Gaza; she is sheltering in a building along with 100 of other civilians. They have not had anything to eat or drink in over a week; she is dying. – Fadi Sckak
The health and safety of Zahra Sckak and Farid Sukaik are rapidly deteriorating. They are both extremely dehydrated and have been left without water for over a week. In a desperate bid for survival, Sckak is being instructed on how to distill her own urine and extract water to drink from plants. This alarming revelation exposes the extreme desperation and imminent threat to her life.
Sckak and her husband, Abedalla, immigrated to the United States in 1988. The family had three boys. Later, the family relocated to Santa Clara, California, where they lived the American dream.
“I had a simple, regular childhood,” Fadi Sckak, the eldest son, said. “We would barbecue on the weekends and take day trips to the Golden Gate Bridge. We spent a lot of time together as a family. I always felt safe and secure. Up until this nightmare began, I firmly believed that as Americans our government will do everything in its power to protect us.
He lives in Sunnyvale, CA and is studying business administration. He and his two younger brothers were born in Texas. Since the war began, they have tried desperately to help their parents, who live in Gaza and are not U.S. citizens.
Last month a projectile hit the home where his parents were staying. They crawled out of the rubble holding a white flag, Fadi Sckak said. His father, a diabetic, was shot in the leg. A nearby medical facility could not treat him. His father died a few days later.
Last month, Sckak said, a projectile hit the home where his parents were staying. They crawled out of the rubble holding a white flag, he said. His father, a diabetic, was shot in the leg. A nearby medical facility could not treat him, and Sckak could not arrange an ambulance in time. His father died a few days later. His last words to his son were to beg for help.
“The last few days have been a nightmare,” Zahra Sckak says in a recent recording, her voice weary. “Before my husband was killed, I had some hope that someone was going to come and help us. I don’t have that hope anymore.”
Fadi Sckak’s mother and uncle have appeared on the list of those authorized to leave, but he said they cannot step outside without fear of being shot, let alone travel 30 miles south to the border with Egypt. Previous assurances that certain roads were safe to travel at specific times proved false, he said.
He barely sleeps.
“I can’t bear to lose her, I just can’t,” he said. “I’m trying really hard to do everything in my power to bring her back. Why is this so hard? This is somebody who is innocent.”
There are roughly 50 Americans, along with about 250 immediate family members and legal permanent residents, who are still trying to leave Gaza as Israel deepens its invasion of the territory after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. Nearly 20,000 people have been killed, half of them are children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble.
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