OAKLAND COUNTY (WWJ) - Law enforcement officials as well as several communities around the Metro Detroit area are on high alert in the wake of the violence between Israel and Hamas.
Public Safety Director Steve Cooper for the City of Oak Park said officers are stepping up patrols around synagogues and in the surrounding Jewish community as a preventative measure.
There haven't been any threats, but Cooper hopes it brings people a sense of safety.
“We have a very high Jewish population in the City of Oak Park and various synagogues,” Cooper told The Detroit News. “(Adding patrols) will hopefully bring them a little extra comfort knowing we are being extra vigilant.”
The measures come as the fighting between Israel and Hamas is intensifying after the militant group launched an unprecedented incursion into Israel on Saturday.
CBS News reports Israel has announced a complete siege of Gaza, meaning it will cut off food, water and electricity.
Officials with Israel’s military on Monday afternoon said it has regained control of all of the communities along its border with Gaza, two days after Hamas launched the unprecedented attack, which left over 900 dead.
Authorities say the death toll includes at least nine U.S. citizens, while an unknown number of others -- including the elderly, women and children -- were kidnapped by Hamas members and taken back to Gaza.
Meanwhile, nearly 600 Palestinians from Gaza have now reportedly been killed as a result of Israeli retaliatory air strikes.
The violence is causing shockwaves halfway around the world among Metro Detroiters, which is home to large Palestinian and Jewish communities.
Federal agents with Detroit's FBI office are also keeping a close eye out for any threatening activity here at home.
"Hate crimes and violence against members of any community will not be tolerated," FBI spokeswoman Gabrielle Szlenkier said to The Detroit News. She urged residents to report any suspicious or threatening activity to tips.fbi.gov.
Katie Doyal, a city spokesperson for the City of Dearborn, said they have not enacted any additional safety measures over the weekend and currently don't have plans to do so.
Doyal stated Dearborn has a "strong and vibrant interfaith and international community" and there isn't a reason for the community to alarmed about at this time.
Metro Detroiters have turned to their community and religious leaders to deal with the violence and uncertainty overseas.
Rabbi Asher Lopartin, Executive Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council/American Jewish Committee in Bloomfield Hills, spoke to WWJ on Monday calling the deadly attacks by Hamas on Israel "the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust...in one day, since the Holocaust."
"And these are civilians," the rabbi said. "I have friends that don't know what happened to their son, who's at a peace music festival where 260 people were killed, were gunned down and slaughtered."
"It's just devastating to see the civilians taken prisoner and brought and paraded through the streets of Gaza," Lopartin said. "You know, it's terrorism, but also the citizens of Gaza must be condemned; those people in the streets who were cheering, it has to be condemned."
Listen to Carlson's complete interview with the rabbi here.
Imam Imran Salha with Islamic Center of Detroit spoke with WWJ's Jon Hewitt condemning the violence, but called for a "comprehensive solution that includes giving rights to Palestinians and treating them like the humans that they are."
"There is sadness all around, for any innocent human being to be killed or to be harmed unrightfully, this is unacceptable," he reiterated.
"We cannot even give an objective measure to the weight of what happened this past weekend without analyzing what has been happening for the past 75 years," Salha argued.
"Ever since 1948, 750,000 Palestinians were pushed out of their homes. They until today live less than 60 miles away from their original homes, unrightfully displaced, they still have the keys to their original homes," the imam stated.
Salha went on to say that Palestinians have been "stripped" of "their right to agency and self-determination and liberty and justice and basic human decency" with their power, water and electricity all controlled by Israel.
"This is something that builds over time and so if we want to rectify, we cannot put a band aid solution with these limited cease fires," Salha said.
Stay tuned to WWJ Newsradio 950 for continuing coverage of this story.