On WhatsApp, Palestinians in the US look for food for Gaza – The Boston Globe

“I’m talking to Palestinians who are upper class, asking me to get their family a pot of soup,” Almadhoun said. In Gaza, virtually every system of modern life has either collapsed or become unreliable: The banks. The stores. The internet. Cell service. Food distribution is intermittent and hundreds have been killed seeking to collect aid. On Friday, the world’s leading authority on food security officially declared a famine is happening in Gaza City. For anguished Palestinians living in the United States with relatives and friends trapped in the enclave, the group chat has become a lifeline – a sort of communal bulletin board of urgent appeals for help, but also for information about who might be left alive in neighborhoods that have been bombed. The chats, which have grown to nearly 500 people, offer a supportive space for people trying to live with the desperation and grief of war, as well as the guilt that comes with watching the horrors unfold from America. “People feel the need for that togetherness,” Almadhoun said. “It’s been destruction, death, starvation, insecurity, horrible news, mayhem, evacuation, injuries. We’ve lived it all.” The crisis began after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing more
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