NBC 5: Chicagoan with family in Gaza details dire humanitarian needs
A pause in fighting in the Middle East is allowing some aid to enter Gaza, but aid agencies warn the people there continue to face severe hunger.
Those warnings are being echoed by Chicago residents who fear for the safety of their families in the region.
"I spent the first four years of my life in Gaza. The first three years were great," said Chicago resident William Asfour. "We would go to the beach, I would play with my cousins, my uncles, my aunts."
Asfour moved to the U.S with his parents and siblings in the early 2000's. The rest of his family members still live in Gaza, and have spent the past couple years documenting their life there through pictures and videos.
“Their houses have been destroyed. The places they’ve been sheltering at have been destroyed, schools, places of worship," Asfour told NBC 5. "My childhood house being destroyed, my grandfather’s house being destroyed, my mom’s childhood house being destroyed. This is impacting all generations.”
He says many of his family members, young and old, have been killed. Others like his first-cousin Yousef are unrecognizable after surviving an attack that killed his father.
"It’s very heartbreaking, and it makes me feel guilty living here in America taking these things I have for granted,” he said.
Meanwhile aid agencies are warning there is not enough food getting into Gaza. Video from last week shows airdrops of aid landing into the ocean as Palestinians paddled and swam to get it.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said there is no starvation happening in Gaza, and that Hamas is behind the pain there.
However President Donald Trump spoke against that assessment, detailing his and the first lady's reaction to the imagery of starving children in Gaza.
"She thinks it's terrible," he told reporters. "And those are kids, you know, whether they talk starvation or not, those are kids that are starving."
Trump says the U.S sent $60 million for food aid and will soon open its own food centers there.
Still, getting aid is a dangerous task in Gaza. The United Nations Human Rights Office has said nearly 900 Gazans have been killed in recent weeks trying to get food at distribution centers.
Meanwhile there is no ceasefire deal on the table, nor a plan to release hostages.