American trapped in Gaza says he feels like 'second-class citizen'

When an Israeli air raid hit the building next to the house where he was staying in Gaza, Zakaria Alarayshi felt like he experienced death while still alive.

“We were confused and huddled together. It was death, death. You feel like you’ve died from the impact and the fear. I am a grown man, and I cried from the fear. Imagine what the children are going through. We had no idea what to do,” he told Al Jazeera in a phone interview.

Alarayshi and his wife Laila Alarayshi are two of the hundreds of United States citizens trapped in the Gaza Strip amid the fighting between Israel and Hamas, which has killed thousands of people and levelled entire neighbourhoods in the Palestinian territory.

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