OMAHA, Neb. and COUNCIL BLUFFS — For neighbors in the Omaha-Council Bluffs area with loved ones in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel, the ongoing conflict is a source of worry.
- Karima Alabsy has family in the West Bank: "It just feels like a matter of time until things get worse over there."
- Carole Lainoff's daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren live in Israel: “I was hoping there was going to be a cease-fire."
- Lainof says many Israelis want a cease-fire so the 100-or-so remaining hostages can come home: "They deserve to come home but it's not happening is it?"
- "When I look at the pictures of kids who have their limbs amputated or fathers who are searching for their families in the rubble of their destroyed homes, I see my family,” Alabsy said
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
For some neighbors in the Omaha-Council Bluffs area, the war between Israel and Hamas isn't just a distant conflict, it affects their loved ones.
I'm neighborhood reporter Katrina Markel.
After more than a year of conflict neighbors say they want the fighting to stop.
Karima Alabsy: "It just feels like a matter of time until things get worse over there."
Carole Lainof: “I was hoping there was going to be a cease-fire."
I first met Karima Alabsy last year just after the start of the conflict.
A year later, the Central High and Creighton graduate is still worried for her family in the other Occupied Palestinian Territory, the West Bank.
"How are they surviving? People who are lucky enough to have family overseas are able to send them money," she said.
Because of tightened security, she says many Palestinians in the West Bank are unable to get to their jobs.
Carole Lainof worries about her family, too. She visited Israel in May for a granddaughter's wedding. I met Lainof at her synagogue in Council Bluffs.
"Everywhere we went in Jerusalem there was soldiers everywhere," she said.
Lainof says many Israelis want a cease-fire so the 100-or-so remaining hostages can come home.
"They deserve to come home but it's not happening is it?" said Lainof.
For Alabsy, she fears people are or are becoming indifferent to the human suffering.
"When I look at the pictures of kids who have their limbs amputated or fathers who are searching for their families in the rubble of their destroyed homes, I see my family,” Alabsy said. “I can look at them and see human beings and I don't know why other people can't see that."
And now a wider, regional conflict is growing between Israel and other forces, like Iran-backed Hezbollah.
"I don't find anybody that thinks this is a good plan but it keeps happening,” Lainof said.
I called Alabsy following the election and she told me not much has changed and that she "wouldn't have felt any better if Harris had won instead of Trump when it comes to Palestine."
More than 1,000 Israelis have died in the conflict and the Palestinian Ministry of Health estimates almost 44,000 Palestinians have been killed.
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