Local man from Gaza concerned for loved ones as conflict escalates

BROOKFIELD-- Hashim Zaibak was born in Gaza and still has family in the area.



\"My three sisters, they live in Gaza right now,\" he said, \"they're under attack every single day.\"



Zaibak's nieces and nephews are in tears each time they hear a strike.



\"They always try to stay in the same room together,\" he said, \"and the reasoning is, if we're bombed, we want to die together.\"



Zaibak says the violence led to the death of his mother Monday.



\"She had a palpitation that caused her death due to the anxiety being worried about her three daughters,\" said Zaibak.



Zaibak's mother died shortly after a phone conversation with his sisters.  She moved to the US from Gaza with her husband to escape the war.



\"They chose to live in Milwaukee, instead of in Gaza, because she was worried about how the war would affect her,\" said Bushra Zaibak, wife of Hashim Zaibak, \"and ultimately, the war would affect her-- to her end.\"



Their family-- just one of many in Milwaukee who are eyewitnesses to the violence between the Israelis and Palestinians.



\"Life has really stopped for the people in the southern part of Israel,\" said Daniel Bader, with the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.



Bader just returned from Israel.  He says many families are living out of their bomb shelters.



\"When the sirens go off, you have 15-seconds,\" he explained.



As conflict continues to escalate-- families say the violence must stop.



\"People also need to know, that it's no longer an issue of Palestinians, or Gazans, or Israelis, or whatever it is, it becomes an issue of humanity,\" said Bushra Zaibak, \"and I feel there's been a loss of humanity.\"