Camarillo woman able to evacuate Gaza left traumatized, son says

CAMARILLO, Calif. (KABC) -- Sons, daughters, and grandchildren are among the many who have pleaded for help evacuating loved ones in Gaza.

Naela Elshorafa of Camarillo is one of the few who has been able to evacuate.

"You literally don't know how to continue the day, you don't know what to do," said her son Nabil Alshurafa.

For nearly a month, Alshurafa and his wife have checked on their families there, including his mother who was visiting in October.

"My grandmother's street was wiped out, buildings destroyed, homes, my aunts and uncles, all of them, their homes have been destroyed," said Alshurafa. "They sought refuge in a home down south. They're about 47 people in a home."

Elshorafa worked as a hairstylist and recently retired. She's now one of the people who've been allowed to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing.

"It was sort of a bittersweet moment," said Alshurafa. "She's just so traumatized with what she's seen."

More than 9,000 people -- mostly women and minors -- have been killed by Israeli military air strikes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Alshurafa said five of his family members were killed.

"We just hope that the number doesn't go up," he said.

His mother was among the hundreds of Palestinian Americans trapped in Gaza. Several Bay Area families filed a lawsuit against the State Department.

"We are here to demand that the U.S. government immediately and safely evacuate every single American citizen from the Gaza strip, including the two grandmothers of the boys behind me," said attorney Ghassan Shamieh.

One woman was able to make it into Egypt but attorneys said litigation continues for the safe evacuation of U.S. citizens who remain in deteriorating conditions in Gaza. A reality that Alshurafa's family continues to experience.

"Death seems very close to them now, when they're just hiding in the house in their home, and there seems to be indiscriminate striking from the Israeli military," he said.

Alshurafa is calling for negotiations and a two-state solution.

"Ceasefire seems to be the bare minimum to say and do when you have so much, so much killing so much disaster, so much of a massacre going on."

The Greater Los Angeles office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) told Eyewitness News there are serious concerns that families -- including parents and minor children -- are being separated based on lists indicating who can cross the border out of Gaza into Egypt. The organization has been in touch with a family of five Palestinian American men who had been unable to evacuate. Two out of the six were on a list and able to leave. The other four remain in Gaza.

ABC News spoke with families detailing similar experiences, including a mother whose children's names were listed, while she was not.