Lynn Slovin and her husband, Eliot, were still in what they called “intake mode” not long after Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
“We're just we're just hunkering down, trying to be in touch with as many people that are physically, have their lives in Israel," Lynn Slovin said.
The Arlington couple lived in Israel for several years in the 70s and 80s; it’s where they met and got married and where their first daughter was born. They still have friends there.
Like many others across North Texas with ties to Israel and the Palestinian Territories, they've been watching anxiously as fighting escalates between Hamas and the Israeli army.
Militants killed at least 1,200 Israelis in the initial attack, according to officials. In response, Israel began a deadly siege on the Gaza Strip, killing more than 2,800 Palestinians there and leaving roughly 2 million civilians effectively trapped without electricity and with limited food and water.
The Slovins first heard of the attacks from the rabbi whose services they watch online most Saturdays. Instead of a sermon, the rabbi delivered the devastating news.
Right away, the Slovins put out calls to loved ones who still live in the country. The responses they received were “shocking” and “horrific”, they say — a far cry from the messages they’d hoped for.
“We almost intuitively expected everybody to say, ‘No, we’re OK, don’t worry,'" she said. "It’s a very small country, but it’s always happening somewhere else in somebody else’s backyard.”
They learned that Hamas militants killed their friend’s daughter, Adi Vital-Kaploun, at her home in a kibbutz, a small Israeli farming community, near the Gaza border. The Jewish Federation of Ottawa confirmed her death Wednesday, according to CBC News.
"It’s just too close and too painful."
Vital-Kaploun was considered missing for three days, Lynn said. She couldn’t stop thinking about the woman’s family during that time.
“It’s just too close and too painful," she said. "You can hear the shock in their parents’ words, both written and verbal.”
There’s long been conflict in the region, but Eliot Slovin said this feels different.
“This one hurts. We don’t know where this is going to end up," he said. "We know that it’s not going to be quick. It’s not going to end quickly. It’s going to be drawn out for a while.”
That’s Nisreen’s worry too. Nisreen — KERA is using just her first name — is a Palestinian artist who grew up in Lebanon and Kuwait before her family moved here more than 20 years ago.
She says the loss of lives will be costly — especially in Gaza, a 140-square-mile strip of land that was already experiencing a humanitarian crisis before this current siege.
“I knew that, you know, the response was going to be of an enormous level," she said. "Nobody gloats or rejoices the loss of human lives whatsoever, of the innocent human lives from both sides. These are the livelihoods of people.
"I don't see a winner in this, I really don’t.”
"I don't see a winner in this, I really don’t."
She remembers when she first heard of the Hamas attack and the Israeli military’s response in Gaza.
“I got a phone call from my brother in the middle of the night. He goes, ‘Turn on the TV, turn on the TV, it's going down... in Gaza," Nisreen said. "And I'm like, 'What's going on?' He goes, 'Just turn on the TV and see for yourself what's going on.' So I looked at the TV and I said, I know this is not going to end very well.”
Nisreen worries about her friends still in Gaza. She said there’s a misperception equating all of Gaza with Hamas.
"In Gaza, there are musicians and doctors and theater students, and it's human lives," she said. "I hope that there is hope, light at the end of the tunnel, that they feel like life is worth living because right now all what they're going to be reaping is the trauma that's going to be engraved in the minds of the generations to come, such as children."
For Romi Geller, the first thought when she heard of the attacks in Israel was of her family there.
"We’ve been in constant contact with them since everything started," she said.
Geller’s family moved to Frisco from Israel when she was five years old. She grew up speaking Hebrew at home and visiting Israel in the summer.
Everyone is fine for now, but Geller said she’s worried about their safety. Three of her cousins have been asked to rejoin the military, and her uncle cleaned out his bomb shelter and filled it with necessities.
The hostage situation feels personal for Geller, who’s 24. She says her cousin was friends with some of the people who were killed.
"It’s hard, because I know their life, and I can imagine who they are so deeply and who their families are," she said.
Geller says she’s leaning on her family during this difficult time. She’s been making the drive from Dallas to Frisco almost every day. She wasn’t going to go back the other day, but then her mom was making schnitzel, a Jewish comfort food.
"I was FaceTiming her and she was making it, and I was like, 'OK, well, I guess I have to come home,' because, like, that's all I want to eat right now."
Meanwhile, in Mesquite, Khalid Hamideh has been keeping up with his family in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, about 50 miles away from Gaza. He said even though they’re far away, they’re still concerned about the conflict — especially as its effects ripple out.
“They're living a normal lifestyle there," he said. "But, I mean, everybody is anxious.”
Both of Hamideh’s parents are from Jerusalem. He's only visited the West Bank twice – the last time was in 2000.
"It’s hard to put up with the military checkpoints," he said.
Many of Hamideh’s friends in North Texas have reached out to him to ask how his family there is doing. And he said his family’s neighbors have checked in on them.
"Even their Jewish friends check in on them to make sure they're OK," he said. "I mean, when you talk about people, the people, the Palestinians, they care about their neighbors that are Jewish or Christian … But they check up on the Muslims and the Jewish neighbors. And they all care for each other. "
Hamideh said it’s the people who matter — not the politics.
"We care about the Palestinians and the Israelis. They should all have freedom," he said. "They both should enjoy the right to live without oppression and occupation. "
Toluwani Osibamowo, Megan Cardona, Stella Chavez, Caroline Love contributed to this story.
