LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentuckians with families in both Palestine and Israel are responding to the violence in the Middle East.

The fighting between Israel and Hamas continues to escalate and there doesn't appear to be an end in sight.

Lexington born and raised, Hoda Shalash said the images pouring from her family in Palestine are troubling.

“Literally, Palestinians have been going asleep for the past week, to the sound of air missiles and killing people,” Shalash said.

Rabbi Shlomo Litvin describes a similar scene of his sister who lives in Jerusalem.

“Every night her kids go get dressed in their bedrooms and go down to a bomb shelter to sleep so that in case rockets fall in the middle of the night. They shouldn't have to leave their bedrooms,” Litvin said.

Airstrikes, missiles, gunfire and destruction have the death toll climbing in Israel and Palestine.

According to the Associated Press, the latest clashes began a month ago with an Israeli move to block some Palestinian gatherings at the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, already a time of heightened religious sensitivities. This was followed by eviction threats to dozens of Palestinians by Jewish settlers which ignited protests and clashes with police.

“I went to sleep last night thinking about literal air missiles because, even my family that are safe in their villages, they were sending us picture videos of smoke in the air that they can see from the air missiles, and they could hear it too,” Shalash said.

Wednesday night, Shalash and her family celebrate Eidal-Fitr, concluding the month of Ramadan.

“When that first attack in Jerusalem was hit when Muslims were praying, that was one of the holiest nights within Ramadan. and so there was more there are more people there, like thousands more, because that's the night that most people had to the Mosque,” Shalash said.

Numerous reports indicate there’s no sign that a ceasefire will be reached any time soon.

“There was the constant struggle of having to have the only multi-ethnic society in the Middle East, to have various communities with various interests, various points of view living together, which Israel has more or less been trying to manage for the last 70 years,” Litvin said.

It has been seven years since the two sides held formal negotiations.

“So you have two issues going on at the same time, an internal issue, and needs to be discussed how can we bring peace to the Middle East, and a second issue a terrorist group who claiming to use this excuse but has never needed an excuse in the past, firing rockets with the intention to kill children and killing not only Jews but Arabs people in Gaza, Arabs in Israel, because human life has never been something that is sacred to them,” Litvin said.

Shalash explained that she wears her Hijab as a symbol of reach freedom.

“This like wiring on it (pointing to her Hijab) represents barbed wire because that's all that Palestinians have ever known as barbed wire just surrounding their villages surrounding their homes and our country. And so Palestinians were this, a symbol of freedom that we are hopeful for freedom one day,” Shalash said.

Ultimately, she hopes there’s an outcome of peace with it.

“You know, at this point, just for people to be able to live their lives as normally as they can,” Shalash said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is promising to expand Israel’s offense and Hamas is calling for a full-scale uprising.