PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A delegation of Israeli Hillel students from Ben Gurion University in Southern Israel, who arrived in the United States just before last week's Hamas attacks are preparing to return home. Some students, however, don't have a home to return to in the wake of the violence.
Reut Noiman, deputy director of Hillel Israel, says life as she knows it changed completely during the brief time that she accompanied her delegation to meet with diaspora Jews in the Philadelphia area.
"We used to say life before COVID and life after COVID. But now it's life before Saturday," said Norman.
Maoz Vaknin of Sderot says he has no home to return to after Hamas attacked and burned down his city. Hamas gunmen killed dozens and destroyed the local police station before Israeli defenders were able to regain control.
He says he learned of the attack when terrorists got a hold of his neighbors' phones and posted gruesome pictures to neighborhood Facebook groups. "I received a selfie of the happy smiling terrorists with the bodies," Vaknin recalled. "I don't think it's an image that I will ever be able to forget."
Noiman says the group hasn't been able to focus on much else. "This is a horror movie," she said. "I feel like I want someone to wake me up from it, like, when is it over? And I feel like I've been up for a week now."
Vaknin says being on this trip saved his life. "Every day at 6 a.m. I usually go for a run without my phone," he said, "and I keep thinking to myself, 'If I wasn't here, what would have happened?'"
Fighting between Israel and Hamas has been ongoing since the terrorist group's bloody, wide-ranging attack. Palestinians struggled Saturday to flee from northern Gaza, following a mass evacuation order from Israeli forces, while grappling with a growing water and medical supply shortage ahead of an expected land offensive.
University classes in Israel have been postponed as reservists are called to military duty. Student Dafna Stein says she's expecting to have to rebuild her life upon arriving home.
"I don't know if I'm going back to university in a month. I don't know if I'm going back to a war zone," said Stein. "This beautifully amazing country that I call home is going to be something unrecognizable for me."
But Vaknin says the goal of the trip, which was to connect with Jews outside of Israel, has been healing as his group has been embraced by the American Jewish community. "You know, I've really understood how much we are one family."
"I think the Jewish community across the world is so strong," echoed Stein.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
