Reaction to Israel-Hamas war as death toll continues to rise
Reaction to Israel-Hamas war as death toll continues to rise
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00:00 President Biden tonight making it crystal clear the United States stands with Israel.
00:06 The president making remarks four days after an unprecedented attack by Hamas militants
00:11 on Gaza, which he called an act of sheer evil, adding Israel had a right to respond, a response
00:18 that's killed more than 830 people in Gaza since the conflict broke out on Saturday,
00:24 according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
00:26 The death toll in Israel at more than a thousand, according to officials there.
00:31 The White House is also confirming at least 14 American citizens are among the dead and
00:37 another 20 or more Americans remain missing.
00:40 Some are among the more than 100 hostages being held by Hamas, including civilians,
00:46 entire families and young children.
00:49 Israel's retaliation for the initial bloodshed has been swift, pounding Gaza with deadly
00:54 airstrikes.
00:56 The military threatening a complete siege of the densely populated strip, displacing
01:01 more than 100,000 people and sending mass groups of injured Palestinians to overwhelmed
01:07 hospitals.
01:08 Here at home, emotions are running high as New Jersey residents with families in Israel
01:13 and Gaza wait for word on whether their loved ones are safe.
01:18 Senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports.
01:23 As rockets roared into Israel, people ran for cover.
01:27 Hamas terrorists invaded kibbutzes going house to house.
01:30 Shockwaves immediately rocked friends and family back in New Jersey, where Union County
01:35 resident Tamar Rachef's friend now sent her frantic text messages.
01:40 She read, "I'm not okay.
01:42 I'm not okay.
01:43 I cannot stop crying.
01:44 I'm not okay.
01:45 I'm all by myself."
01:46 So immediately you take up, you take the phone.
01:48 She's nine months pregnant.
01:49 Rachef, who works with the Jewish Federation of Greater Metro West, tried to calm her friend,
01:55 but later heard now his husband had been shot in the stomach.
01:58 Both are hospitalized.
02:00 As for Rachef's brother, Shmuel, he's a reservist in Israel.
02:04 I got a message last night in my family group from Israel.
02:08 My brother was drafted.
02:10 He's one of thousands called up to join Israeli defense forces.
02:14 That's hitting home here too.
02:17 And we're talking probably about, I want to say probably at least 100 North Jersey residents
02:22 that are right now in the Israeli army and with a mass call up.
02:26 And right now the numbers are 360,000 people called up.
02:30 TNEC Councilman Mark Schwartz called from the airport in Frankfurt, Germany.
02:34 He's one of the lucky few who've managed to get flights home.
02:37 The Hamas attack caught many New Jersey families visiting Israel over religious holidays off
02:43 guard.
02:44 But now that most airlines have canceled service to and from Israel, getting home to Jersey
02:49 won't be easy.
02:50 We are expecting plane loads of people that will not be able to get out via United and
02:56 via Delta, and we're going to have to get rebooked.
03:00 My big concern is making sure my family gets out of this country safe and is not entangled
03:05 and get caught up in the war in any which way, shape or form.
03:10 Next, Deputy Mayor Eli Katz says his family has tickets to Dubai as many flee the war
03:15 any way they can.
03:17 Lakewood Rabbi Moshe Weisberg is currently staying near Jerusalem and describes a tense
03:23 emotional atmosphere.
03:25 He's already witnessed many burials.
03:27 It's extremely, extremely bad.
03:29 I mean, my wife is actually sobbing now.
03:33 We probably passed by it an hour ago.
03:36 And just the after effects of seeing, you know, one after the other.
03:40 Weisberg called the Hamas attack Israel's version of 9/11 and says it will only lead
03:45 to more suffering.
03:46 But it's clear that both Israelis and Palestinians will continue to die in this conflict.
03:53 Pro-Israel supporters in Short Hills and across New Jersey rallied, promising U.S. support,
03:59 as did President Biden.
04:01 Israel's prime ministers vowed vengeance and retaliated by shelling Gaza and blocking
04:06 all vital supplies into a territory where over half the population lives beneath the
04:11 poverty line.
04:12 Passaic County resident Najwa Al-Sadi says her sister and niece live in Gaza.
04:18 They are destroyed emotionally and physically.
04:20 They cannot sleep.
04:23 They cannot.
04:24 They don't have food.
04:25 They don't have water.
04:28 It looks like they may even lose the shelter that they have.
04:33 No medicine is allowed to get in or out of Gaza.
04:37 She says families keep moving from house to house, warned that more rockets are incoming
04:41 from Israel at rallies like this one in Patterson, Palestinians demanded to be heard.
04:47 Free, free Palestine.
04:48 Free, free Palestine.
04:51 The Palestinian American Community Center called for an end to decades of Israeli occupation.
04:57 We do not condone bloodshed.
05:00 We don't condone the killing of any civilians.
05:03 But this is a boiling point.
05:06 And this is an opportunity for our leaders, for the international community to correct
05:11 what is wrong.
05:13 75 years of occupation is too long.
05:18 In order for us to see peace, we must first see justice.
05:23 But in order for us to see justice, we must first see an end to the occupation of Palestine.
05:31 But right now, there's no end in sight.
05:34 I'm Brenda Flanagan, NJ Spotlight News.
05:37 [music]