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Maher El-Masri and his family are still in shock after finding out that El-Masri’s brother Syed was shot and killed in Gaza on Dec. 5.
El-Masri says his brother was crossing a road with his son to get food for his family when he was shot by an Israeli tank sniper.
“They saw the tank, but they thought, ‘We’re civilians. We’re having, you know, white flags. It’s OK, we can cross the street.’ They went under fire immediately and they just ran for their life,” said El-Masri, a nursing professor who works in Toronto.
El-Masri says his 61-year-old brother couldn’t run fast enough and was gunned down.
El-Masri says he has had difficulty sleeping, eating and drinking since the shock of losing his brother because he is suffering from survivor guilt. But he says life now will be even more difficult for Syed’s wife, four daughters, two sons and three grandchildren.
“After he’s been killed, things have become even more difficult because to be honest with you, he’s the one who kind of looked after everyone,” said El-Masri, adding that people in Gaza are so displaced they are having difficulty burying their dead properly.
“Normally there are ceremonies you do for burying and honouring the dead. None of this is taking place these days.”
Israel and Hamas have been at war since Oct. 7.
After many delays, the U.N. Security Council adopted a watered-down resolution Friday calling for immediately speeding up aid deliveries to desperate civilians in Gaza. However it passed without the original call for an urgent suspension of hostilities between Israel and Hamas.
El-Masri is hoping stories like his family’s will be the key to ending them.
“The more people know about the human suffering of the people of Palestine and Gaza, the closer we are to a solution,” he said.
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