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Israel war hitting close to home for Houstonians
FOX 26 Reporter Abigail Dye has more after speaking with some Houstonians.
HOUSTON - As the war continues to rage on in Israel, Houstonians are feeling the pain.
Itai Beneli is from Israel has lived in Houston for five and a half years. He owns several Israeli-inspired restaurants, one of them is Hamsa, in Rice Village.
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He says Saturday, his life changed.
"These have been some of the most difficult days of my life," he said. "My entire family is there, my parents, aunts, uncles, cousins."
He says thankfully, at this point, his family members are safe, but far from okay.
"At this point every Israeli is affected by it, we all know someone who was kidnapped, killed, in some form," he said.
So many are living in a state of fear. Something Houston-native Adam Block can relate to right now.
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Block was born in Houston and lived here for 27 years before moving to Israel, where he’s been for 14 years. He started a family and full life, but now, a lot is changing.
"There's a lot of extremely cruel things that have happened, so we're really worried about the people we haven't seen," he said.
Block says, luckily, his family is safe, and their home is far from the Gaza Strip. But, throughout the past few days, he’s gotten missile alerts on his phone.
"We have a very advanced iron dome and missile warning system, so on Saturday, my family and I went into our shelter," he said.
He said with his young children, he tries to keep calm and keep their spirits light.
"But how far can you run from the truth than - the reason we're in the bomb shelter is someone is trying to kill us," he said.
Block says the war may be in Israel, but the rest of the world, including Houston, should be concerned – and he's happy to see that many are.
"I think Houston people get this a lot faster than people in other parts of the United States," he said.
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He says Houston’s size and diversity makes it a leader in the U.S., and he wants Houstonians to understand that this war is against terrorism.
"We don’t have a world where you can seal off murderous extremism in one place and assume it's not going anywhere else," he said. "It's Hamas versus literally everyone else on planet Earth."
Beneli agrees saying, "This fight is happening in Israel, but this is larger than Israel and Palestine, this is terrorism against civilization."
He says he’s received hundreds of messages from people in the Houston community and truly appreciates the support during this horrific time.
"Thank you to the Houston community. It's been heartwarming to see how many people care and how many people want to support us," he said.
If you want to help innocent civilian victims of the war, regardless what side they are on, you can find links to donate below.
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