HAZELWOOD, Mo. — It's been a week since the deadly, Israel-Hamas conflict erupted and Hazelwood restaurant owner, Wesam Hamad, can't stop thinking about his family.
"I'm definitely worried about them all the time," Hamad said.
His wife, Samah, and their four kids live in Jerusalem, which is about a two-hour drive from Gaza.
"Right now, they're kind of alright. I call them every day. They're not in the middle of all that warring, but it's bad. It's bad everywhere. It's really had to explain honestly," Hamad said.
For the past 10 years, Hamad ran the Kaslik Mediterranean Cuisine on North Lindbergh in north St. Louis County. His family has never been to his restaurant or to America.
On Saturday, Hamad said he'd hoped to fly home to be with his loved ones. But, now as the war intensifies and tens of thousands of Gazans flee their homes, Hamad said he's having second thoughts.
"I'm really afraid to go like everybody else, but really at the same time I want to be with my family, with my kids," he added.
"Seeing what is occurring not just in the Gaza Strip, but also within the occupied West Bank has been heart-wrenching," Neveen Ayesh, Hamad's niece, said.
Ayesh, a government relations coordinator for the Missouri Chapter of American Muslims of Palestine, was born in St. Louis and raised in Palestine.
Ayesh said he also had many concerns and fears when she watched the horrific images of lives lost, lives forever changed due to the ongoing war.
"I have spent my entire 20s talking to state legislators, trying to educate our elected officials and the general public overall what has been happening in the Middle East. Our families, our friends we want them to know they are not alone," Ayesh said.