COLUMBUS, Ohio — Thousands of rockets started flooding Israel on Shabbat — a Jewish holiday.
When Sue Borison heard, she went to call her family members, but each minute going by without a response felt like a ticking time bomb.
"Every day is a little bit — kind of like waking up and expecting the nightmare to have been a dream," Borison, a leader at the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, said.
She sits in silence, checking in to make sure her loved ones and friends are still alive. She is mourning after the unexpected attack on Israel killed more than 1,300 people.
"Slaughtered by terrorists from Hamas, burned alive, decapitated and then pictures taken," she said.
It's a helpless feeling, she said, knowing that people like Martin Mendelsohn are hearing rockets every day. Mendelsohn studied in Ohio but moved to live in Israel with his family.
"Three of my kids, my wife and I, had about a minute and a half to make it into the bomb shelter," Mendelsohn said on a video call.
But he thinks about his other kids, soldiers now fighting against Hamas.
"We can't have rockets raining down on our country anymore," he added.
Israel, with support from the United States, has launched a fierce counterattack in Gaza — one that has already killed more than 1,500 people, according to Palestinian authorities. Retired Israeli Defense Forces Brigadier General Amir Avivi said this is needed to protect Israel and Israelis.
"We had a very difficult few days, really the atrocities and the massacre; it's unbelievable," Avivi said over video call. "It's like a Holocaust feeling."
This is the deadliest attack on Jewish people since the genocide.
"You're officially going to war," News 5's Morgan Trau said during an interview.
"We are heading to a long war," Avivi responded.
Israelis and Palestinians have been fighting over who the land belongs to for decades, but Borison said this shouldn't cause a loss of innocent life.
"I think the conversation should be around the loss and devastation in a country — that in no way reflects movement toward peace, when people want peace and freedom," Borison said.
As the war wages on, she continues checking her phone, hoping for better news.
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