Winnipeg man says more than 60 members of his family have been killed in Gaza

A Winnipeg man says more than 60 of his extended family members living in Gaza have been killed since the beginning of the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas. 

Louay Alghoul said 67 of his relatives, all of whom were civilians, have died during the fighting. Many of them were also under the age of 15, he said.

"These are human beings — I have pictures of them, I have shared with them stories, I've seen their weddings," he said. 

Alghoul said there have been many sleepless nights for his family as the war wages on. He also said some of his family members in Gaza were killed while evacuating from the north to the south. 

Some of the stories he's heard break his heart, he said.

In one instance, the family of a young girl he's related to was killed, said Alghoul. He doesn't know her, but knows the family, and spent weeks trying to place her with another family. 

"I know her family and they're all dead, and I have to find people to look after her because I can't reach her," he said. "And these families [who] are looking after themselves are being bombed, and I don't know how they deal with this." 

Death toll in Gaza surpasses 20,000

Hamas and allied groups killed more than 1,000 people and took more 200 hostages during a surprise attack on Israel Oct. 7. 

Israel has placed Gaza under relentless bombardment in response to the Oct. 7 attack. 

Gaza's health ministry said Friday it has documented 20,057 deaths in the fighting and more than 50,000 wounded. It does not differentiate between combatant and civilian deaths. It has previously said that roughly two-thirds of the dead were women or minors.

More than half a million people in Gaza — a quarter of the population — are starving, according to a report released Thursday by the UN and other agencies that highlights the humanitarian crisis caused by Israel's bombardment and siege on the territory in response to Hamas's Oct. 7 attack. 

On Friday, the United Nations Security Council adopted a watered-down resolution calling for aid deliveries to hungry and desperate civilians in Gaza to immediately be sped up — but without the original call for an "urgent suspension of hostilities" between Israel and Hamas.

In Manitoba, Premier Wab Kinew recently penned a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, expressing the province's willingness to potentially take in people seeking refuge from Gaza. 

Kinew's letter said the possible welcoming of refugees should "happen in a way that allows these potential refugees to return to the region in the future."

The premier also wrote the goal "is not to facilitate further displacement of people, but rather to respond to the current humanitarian crisis with compassion and to help those whose lives are at risk from war and starvation."

Alghoul called on people on both sides of the conflict to step in to try to stop the fighting. 

He also said while he's not advocating for any side or political issue, he is advocating for human life. The number of lives lost in Gaza alarming, he said.

"How do we recover from this, how do we go forward, and how do we make sure this never happens again? How do we prevent this from ever happening again from the history of human kind?" he asked.

"This is going to be remembered 10, 20, 30 years from now, 50 years from now as something that is unbelievable."