Jewish community in Tampa gather in solidarity to honor victims of Hamas attacks

TAMPA, Fla. - More than 900 people with ties to Israel gathered in solidarity Tuesday evening at an undisclosed location in Tampa.

The event was geared to honor the more than 1,000 lives lost since Saturday and to pray for those affected by the Hamas attacks.

"This kind of cuts to the chord for us. It's something that I think resonates deeply in terms of the attack and the nature of the attack, the barbarity of the attacks," said Joe Probasco, Board Member of the Jewish Federation of North America.

Attendees sported white "I stand with Israel" T-shirts, given American and Israeli flags.

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"Many American Jews have friends and family in Israel. I have a friend whose family presently is in one of the hostage situations and my heart just breaks for them," he shared. "Many of our friends are getting called up to do Reserve duty, many of our Israeli friends are flying home to be at home with their country during this critical time."

Lea Merrill Davidson-Bern's son, Jesse, was deployed as an IDF Reserve from Tampa on Saturday.

"When we heard what was going on, I said hypothetically, 'Are you going to go, if called?'. An hour later he was called up, an hour later he had his ticket, the next day he was gone," Davidson-Bern said.

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Instead of running away from the danger, he ran towards it. Davidson-Bern's son is a USF grad.

"It's very important for him to have safety of Israeli citizens. It's paramount for who he is as a person," Davidson-Bern explained.

"Usually I'm the kind of guy who says thoughts and prayers don't work but when it comes to the Jewish will, I think thoughts and prayers are the best thing we can do right now," said Jesse in a video posted to his social media.