‘It’s Like a Cage’: Palestinian American Who Fled Gaza Condemns Israeli ‘Siege’ in Interview With Jake Tapper

A Palestinian American mother who appealed to CNN’s Jake Tapper for help escaping Gaza joined him on set in Washington, D.C., Thursday to discuss her ordeal.

Haneen Okal, from Union County, New Jersey, was finally able to return to the United States after spending three weeks in war-torn Gaza. She first spoke to Tapper on Oct. 10, after Israel began its siege in retaliation for the Hamas attack that killed 1,200.

Okal said she she, her three young children, brother Abood, and his family, were able to escape, but many family members were left behind.

“My parents are still stuck there. My family members, relatives, my cousins. My brothers, siblings. All the civilians in Gaza. I want to talk about them specifically because as you see now what happening is a human catastrophe,” Okal said. “My parents now in Rafah. They flee from north to south, as well as so many thousands of Palestinians. Two million people. We are talking about two million people now,” she said, continuing:

There is lackness of food, lackness of electricity, lackness of water now. It’s like a siege. Israeli military is forcing people in this, forcing a siege. It’s like a cage. No medicine, no water, no electricity. They’re doing all the bombing while cutting off everything else. People are suffering because of lackness of everything that a human being needs to survive. When I was in Gaza, I was thinking, how am I going to survive? And now, look at all those civilians. They has to do nothing with what’s going on.

“It must have been crazy because you were literally — because I remember talking to your brother, texting with your brother, and it was literally, ‘How am I going to get food for my family today,'” Tapper said.

Okal went on to talk about the hospitals shutting down and doctors performing operations without anesthesia.

“And premature babies, as I told you about, they’re dying slowly. Thousands of people are trapped under the rubble dying slowly. Nobody can reach them. The Red Cross are not able to help. Nobody can reach them. There is no fuel. You know? For anything to — the blackout of electricity is a big problem now. And this has to has an end.”

Okal then called for an immediate ceasefire, and said the United States is complicit in the “genocide” of Palestinians.

“And I’m sorry to say that, but the U.S. government, their responsibility of this violence, of this genocide, they need to stop sending weapons for Israel military. They need to stop sending money for this war.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.