South Bay man finds 30 family members die from Gaza fighting

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- The FAA has banned U.S. airlines from landing in Tel Aviv after a Hamas rocket made it through Israel's iron dome security system and hit near the airport. The rocket attacks and Israeli missile strikes are intensifying. There have been 29 Israelis and 630 Palestinians killed in the past 15 days. With no cease fire in place, sadly, those numbers are expected to go up.

A South Bay man is in mourning after one of those air strikes killed 30 members of his family. It is the largest number of people killed in a single family since the fighting started.

A missile strike destroyed an entire building, filled with just one family -- the Jamahs. Tuesday night, the one relative who lives in the Bay Area spoke to ABC7 News about the pain and sadness he was going through.

Palestinian-American Hani Jamah showed us photos of his relatives and said, "This is one of my cousins that passed away. He was killed five hours ago."

He is glued to social media sites and international news channels. It's where he gets his information about Gaza and Israel. It's also where he learned about Sunday's missile strike that killed 30 people in one building.

Hani said, "I was like, 'Wow, that is sad. Let me see this poor family. Who are those people?' And I found out it's my family."

The Jamah family, which had three generations living under one four-story roof, was gone. The place where their home once stood now looks like a pile of rubble, leaving behind a long list of the dead. No one survived.

There were a number of children living at the home all ranging from 6 months old to 14. There were also at least three women that were pregnant.

Hani said, "I feel terrible when I see human beings die this way, but when I see my family members? That was extremely difficult for me."

The last time the father of two was in Gaza was two years ago. Now, he wants to go back, but getting into the region is nearly impossible. The bombings are intensifying and so is the chaos.

In the Bay Area the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR, is demanding an end to the violence, through a letter campaign.

CAIR's executive director Zahra Billoo said they want Israel to be held "accountable for the civilian deaths that it is perpetuating through the use of U.S. tax dollars."

Thousands of letters will be delivered to the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, on Thursday.