Palestinians in Wake County spend week in agony

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- It's been an agonizing few days for Doha Hindi.

"Constantly having to defend my right to exist should not occur," she said. "If we support Ukraine, we should support Palestine. If we support Black Lives Matter, we should support Palestine."

Doha, who lives south of Raleigh, has relatives in the Palestinian region but has never visited. She said close ones such as her grandfather were expelled in the late 1940s.

She has watched the news and said she has even felt discriminated against at work as a result of the war in the Middle East.

"Human life across the board is valuable with the caveat that oppressed people have the right to fight back against oppression," she said. "We are not barbaric, we are not inhumane."

She said she believes the years-long conflict can be fixed simply by giving Palestinians their freedom.

"Just allow them to have the ability to live a humane and dignified life, experience the things people on the Israeli side are experiencing," she said.

In Gaza, Palestinian authorities reported more than 1,000 people have died in retaliatory airstrikes by Israel. Doctors Without Borders is providing medical aid, treating 50 patients on Monday. In a statement to ABC11, the organization said all of its patients at its clinic in Gaza City were children and young teens.

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The Israeli military pulverized the Gaza Strip with airstrikes, prepared for a possible ground invasion, and said Thursday that its complete siege of the territory - which has left Palestinians desperate for food, fuel, and medicine - would remain in place until Hamas militants free some 150 hostages taken during a grisly weekend incursion.

On Wednesday, Gaza's only power station ran out of fuel and shut down, leaving only lights powered by scattered private generators.

Hospitals, overwhelmed by a constant stream of wounded and running out of supplies, have only a few days worth of fuel before their power cuts off, aid officials say.

"Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues," said Fabrizio Carboni, regional director of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Newborn incubators, kidney dialysis machines, X-ray equipment and more, are all dependent on power, he said.

The Associated Press contributed.