Colorado man wants Biden administration to help his family taken by Israeli Defense Forces
Despite the snowy and cold weather protestors were still out and about in Denver demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.
Usually, Abdullah Elagha would be out protesting with them, because he has experienced unimaginable loss since Oct. 7.
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His family lives in Gaza and many of them have been killed by the Israeli Defense Forces.
"Confirmed so far is 120 of my relatives have been killed in the last almost five months," said Elagha.
But now he is dealing with a new sort of loss and uncertainty. He says two of his cousins have been taken by the IDF.
"Israeli soldiers raided this shelter. They tied and blindfolded all the women and children, threw some of them outside, threw some of them in a corner. They beat my 12-year-old cousin and then they abducted all of the men of military age," said Elagha.
Elagha's cousins 18-year-old Borak Elagha and 20-year-old Hashem Elagha were among the captives. Born and raised in Chicago, they were students overseas before being forced to evacuate to a shelter in the south of Gaza.
"They're just normal kids going about their lives and to treat them as combatants is really, really inhumane and is really not based in any truth," said Elagha.
He says this hit him especially hard because he grew up with them in Chicago and has fond memories of them and the rest of their family.
"They're very close to me," he said. "They're very dear to me. And it's really upsetting that not only do we not have any information about where they are, but also the Biden administration has really not been doing anything at all to find out even their whereabouts to get them out."
Elagha says his family sued the U.S. State Department months ago demanding they get Borak and Hashem out of Gaza. So far, there hasn't been any attempt to evacuate them and Abdullah fears it's too late.
"It's really upsetting that the State Department is not honoring its responsibility to protect American lives, both here and abroad," said Elagha.
