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Families in Florida fear for loved ones in Israel
Kylie Jones reports.
TAMPA, Fla. - As Israel steps up its offensive against Hamas, families and friends in Florida are fearing for their loved ones’ safety.
One Israeli woman who has family and friends in Florida has been living in fear since Saturday.
Chen Sultan, 18, lives about five miles from the Gaza Strip and was woken up Saturday morning by airstrikes.
"I woke up 6:30 in the morning while massive rocket attacks," Sultan said.
Civilians are waking up to rocket attacks.
Sultan said the sound of rockets is something she’s accustomed to, but the sounds she heard Saturday morning were even more grave.
"I literally heard gunshots outside of my house," she shared. "Just imagine being in your own room and hearing gunshots."
Sultan said she and her family raced to their bunker, which is not an unfamiliar place to them.
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"We locked the bomb shelter, and we stayed as quite possible with turn down the lights," she said.
She’ll never forget the next few moments, saying her life flashed before her eyes.
"And then I heard Hamas screaming outside of my house, and they’re trying to literally break the door and get to us," Sultan recalled.
Sultan will never be able to erase those moments from her mind. She is grateful to be alive.
She watches in horror as Hamas terrorists infiltrate Israel.
18-year-old Chen Sultan lives about five miles from the Gaza Strip.
"Right now, the entire country isn’t safe right now," Sultan said. "From north to south, people are trying to kill us."
Sultan describes the scene outside her home as sadistic.
"Dead bodies all over the roads," she said. "One of my close friends was slaughtered in his own home. My own family has been separated."
Sultan believes another friend and their family are among the growing number of civilians who have been taken hostage by Hamas.
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She said Hamas terrorists are holding the roads, so people are trapped. Sultan only goes outside if she is armed with a knife, because she’s worried that her life could flash before her eyes at any moments.
"I want to wake up in the morning without being afraid that I'm going to die because I’m a Jew, because of my religion," she said.
Sultan escaped from her home near Gaza and in a different part of the country where she’s as safe as possible.
She is praying that her family and friends are still alive.