By: Katie Parker
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (UATV) – A surprise attack on Southern Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas has rippled a wave of fear and concern all over the world, including Northwest Arkansas.
“It’s terrifying,” Yael Even, University of Arkansas senior said. “Israel has always been a place that felt like home to me. It’s always been pure bliss and now so many families have been broken apart. And it doesn’t feel safe.”
Even is an Israeli American who spent every summer traveling to West Asia and has over 30 family members currently in Israel.
Palestinian forces consider Israel an illegitimate state and insist the country is an occupying power denying the liberation of Palestinian territories.
Nearly 900 people, including 11 Americans, have died in just a little over 48 hours.
“Republican or Democrat, people are dying,” Even said. “Lives are on the line. I think I’m so upset because people are putting their politics first when there’s so many lives lost. Mothers of children, friends, families… it’s just so hard to watch.”
Israeli forces have combatted the ascendancy with airstrikes, leaving over 680 Palestinians dead.
Hamas said executions would be and broadcast without warning if Israel targets people in Gaza, the Hamas headquarters.
“I keep refreshing Twitter, I keep refreshing my news feed and the stuff I’ve seen is awful,” Even said. “There’s these terrible graphic videos of heads being chopped off and women covered in blood and it’s just horrific.”