Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May 2026, pp. 78-79
Muslim American Activism
AMERICANS FOR PALESTINIAN Orphans (APO) held an iftar fundraiser entitled “Sustaining Hope” at Dar Al-Huriya (the Palestine House of Freedom) in Washington, DC on Feb. 27. After Palestine House of Freedom’s founder Miko Peled welcomed visitors to his building and guests filled their plates, APO’s founders took turns describing their organization’s mission. Educator Dr. Mai Abdul Rahman introduced APO’s liaison Ibrahim Ismail Al-Ghandour and the children they serve in Gaza via video.
APO volunteers work to raise awareness and funds to educate orphans and plan to build a boarding school estimated to cost $250,000. Treasurer Amal Garada said APO has helped 900 orphans in the past year, despite the organization becoming displaced six times due to their facilities being damaged or destroyed. APO currently serves 300 infants and children under 13 and employs 11 teachers, plus liaison Al-Ghandour. With help from other non-profits on the ground in Gaza, APO supplies rent, tents, water, electricity, teaching supplies, diapers, food, medical and psychological services to their orphans.
One viewer said aloud what many of us were thinking: The children in the video look well dressed and cared for compared to the pictures we’ve seen of hungry kids gripping pots for food. Abdul Rahman explained that most orphans have lost their father and may still have their mother or live with their extended family. “No child is left alone to beg in the streets in Gaza. Orphans must keep their dignity and pride. They need our help to heal, get a good education and build resilience,” Abdul Rahman concluded.
Americans for Palestinian Orphans hosted another fundraising iftar, along with Bloom and Haya Washington, on March 7 at the McLean Community Center in VA. They raised funds from the auction of a lovely thobe and stained-glass creations by Dr. Yaser Freij to help provide food, medical aid and emergency support to families and orphans in Gaza.
A keynote speech by Dr. Irfan Galaria, a plastic surgeon who recently volunteered in Gaza, riveted listeners. “On Jan. 30, 2024, I was in Gaza operating on a mother whose children had been killed. Midway through the surgery I heard more Israeli bombs dropping and I felt a wave of hopelessness. I was helping one person and hearing others being hurt or killed. I was standing in the epicenter of a genocide and vowed when I left to serve as a witness to the annihilation.”
Dr. Galaria returned to Gaza in November 2025 during a “ceasefire” with the naïve hope that things would return to normal. Instead, “things were not just difficult they were impossible. Gaza is a concrete wasteland, with leveled homes and tents stuffed together, sometimes atop graveyards.” He recalled operating on 6-year-old twins who had picked up a can of food on the street that Israeli soldiers rigged with explosives and having to amputate their hands. The only goods Gazans can buy are high-priced Israeli products. Despite everything, Gazans are restarting schools and finding new uses for found items. He saw kids using a broken refrigerator door as a flotation device to swim in the sea. “I left Gaza inspired by Palestinians’ faith and endurance,” Dr. Galaria said softly.
Dr. Adlah Sukkar, a pulmonary disease and critical care specialist who volunteers with Doctors Against Genocide, said in the last month she has had 37 meetings on Capitol Hill to demand support for healthcare in Gaza. “We have witnessed the destruction of the health care system in Gaza and are obligated to help,” she said. While other countries in crisis open their doors for medical aid, Israel has weaponized healthcare, Dr. Sukkar said. Israeli authorities forbid the entry of medical supplies. They tried to prevent a colleague from bringing in a stethoscope until he claimed it was for his personal use to monitor his own heart. “Doctors are supposed to be neutral, but who can be silent in the face of a genocide?” The children of Gaza must grow up knowing the world has not abandoned them, she concluded. “Their lives matter.”
Mount of Olives Association (MOA) and the American Palestinian Women’s Association (APWA) joined forces to raise funds at another Gaza Benefit Iftar on March 8, at Lake Center Plaza in Sterling, VA. APWA’s executive director Mona Sadeq pointed out that it was hard to find food in Gaza for Palestinians to break their fast.
Damascus-born anesthesiologist Dr. Mohammed Naji has participated in Syrian American Medical Society missions to Syria, Türkiye, Lebanon and Jordan. After seeing a video of a physician whose home was demolished forced to amputate his daughter’s leg without anesthesia, Dr. Naji said he was determined to volunteer in Gaza. As he entered Gaza in 2025, he could see trucks full of aid just sitting on a highway in the desert waiting to enter the besieged enclave.
Dr. Naji and the other new volunteers at the European Hospital in Khan Yunis found it nearly impossible to sleep hearing Israeli drones and F-16s and smelling smoke. After Gaza medical workers calmed them down a peaceful spirit descended upon them, like they were on a Hajj to Mecca, he said. Dr. Naji spent two weeks treating wounded men, women and children, doing more amputations than in his entire medical career. He had never seen injuries and mutilations like these. The shrapnel doctors removed from patients were coated with some kind of chemical, so wounds couldn’t heal and doctors were forced to remove limbs. The destruction he saw in Gaza was “a crime against humanity.” The Gaza medical workers who work without salaries, have no homes left and sleep in the hallways are heroes, Dr. Naji concluded. “May Allah save them.”
—Delinda C. Hanley
