Intimaa Salama was walking through the halls of Congress when she learned that another friend at home in Gaza had been killed. It was a stark reminder why she had flown from St. Louis to attend President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address as the guest of Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.).
“I feel like I need to do this. I need to be here,” Salama told HuffPost. “I’m doing it for my family and for my people, who need an immediate and permanent cease-fire.”
Thirty-five of Salama’s family members have been killed in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, including her grandmother, two of her brothers and their families, and three of her uncles and their families. The war has so far killed an estimated 30,000 Palestinians since Israeli forces began their assault on Gaza in retaliation for the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks that left 1,200 Israelis dead and about 250 taken hostage.
Biden is expected to announce in his address Thursday night that the U.S. military will establish a temporary port on the Mediterranean at Gaza to increase the flow of humanitarian aid to the area, including water, food and medicine, senior administration officials told reporters. The plan comes a week after the announcement of a temporary cease-fire to facilitate an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Meanwhile, a humanitarian crisis has reached “apocalyptic” conditions, according to Refugees International, with reports of babies and children dying of starvation.
Bush welcomed the news of the port but said the White House needed to do more, including backing a permanent cease-fire, calling for the release of Palestinians detained in Israeli jails and reinstating the funding to the United Nations relief agency that provides aid for Palestinians in and around the region.
“You don’t get to put water and fuel on a fire and then call yourself a firefighter,” Bush told HuffPost. “We don’t want this military spending as war crimes are happening right now on the ground in Gaza.”
Salama, a dentist pursuing her master’s St. Louis University who was born and raised in Gaza, said the White House had “blood on its hands” for its role in the war.
“They can’t undo this, but they have the power and responsibility to save lives,” she said.
Salama said it had been painful watching her family live amid bombardments as their home city has been flattened. The school she once attended was destroyed by airstrikes.
The situation in Gaza will only get worse if Biden doesn’t immediately change course, Salma said, and she hopes her presence at his annual address sends that message.
“We deserve to live a life,” Salma said. “We deserve to have our dignity. We deserve to be treated as humans.”