1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

Raneem Hijazi is a mother from Gaza, who was holding her one year old son, Azzouz, against her eight month pregnant belly when the building they were sheltering in was hit by an Israeli air strike. Azzouz was killed in his mother’s arms and she asked her family to leave her to die, they did not and she was rushed to the hospital where she delivered her daughter via c-section. She hasn’t held her daughter in six months because she is in a hospital bed with an amputated arm and damaged legs while her parents care for her daughter. I am a mother of two six year old daughters and I’m writing this to you as a mother and a woman and a human. Azzouz deserved to live, Raneem deserves to live without the overwhelming and horrifying pain of remembering what it felt like to hold her lifeless son in her hands. Without the pain of her injuries and the pain of not being with her surviving child. America must do more. We cannot let this continue, we cannot let mothers and children suffer and die.