JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – For one family, the crisis in Israel is not just a headline — it’s home.
From sleepless nights to sheltering in safe rooms, Talya — who lives in Israel — described her daily reality in vivid, emotional detail during a conversation with loved ones in the United States.
“I hardly sleep,” she said. “I wake up every hour, because I’m worried that my family will not wake up and go to the safe room. My father is living with us now because he has no safe room in his home. He has high blood pressure, dementia, and can’t hear well. I take care of him, my husband, and our 7-year-old son — all while teaching on Zoom."
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Rocket sirens sound as often as twice a day, sometimes overnight. The unpredictability of attacks has left her family homebound, limiting outings to no more than 10 minutes in fear of missing a warning.
“There’s no real routine,” she added. “It’s like a prison in a jail and very, very hard, very frustrating.”
Talya said the constant threat has robbed families of basic freedoms — from dining out to seeing friends. She said she draws strength by thinking of hostages still held from previous attacks and reminds herself that others have endured far worse.
“I’m complaining, and they are two years like, in the cave and can’t breathe and can’t go anywhere. I want to feel the sun. And they didn’t feel the sun like two years,” she said.
Omer and Jennifer, who live in New York but have family across Israel, said they’re in constant communication with loved ones — not only for comfort, but for confirmation of their safety.
“My brother-in-law’s apartment that was hit, just like shuttered windows and the television broke because of the explosions that were nearby,” explained Omer. “He’s stuck in Greece. He was on vacation, and his son is actually in the military, and his daughter is 17, and she’s with her mother. So that was also, it’s very difficult.”
Jennifer’s partner’s mother was critically wounded after being directly targeted by an Iranian missile. “It’s a miracle,” Jennifer said. “She was under the rumble she survived. She’s in very bad shape. She’s old, but the amount of love and support that there is in Israel is just so stunning and so amazing that we are a bit at peace with that.”
Despite the fear and exhaustion, hope and resilience run deep.
“We live to live, not to kill,” Talya said emotionally. “We are strong in our morality and we will overcome.”
The family expressed deep gratitude to the United States for its support and recent efforts to counter Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
“We know we’re not alone,” Omer said. “We’re not asking for the Americans to fight for us. We’ve done most of the work, some of the things we cannot do, and we need some help and technology.”
Amid the fear, Talya and her family are finding solace in small ways — recalling peaceful summers in Canada, video calling loved ones abroad, and holding onto memories of rollercoasters, lakes, and normalcy.
Still, their message to those in the U.S. is clear: “Know that we are strong and we will stay strong, and we win.”
“We hope for peace,” Talya said. “We hope for peace in Israel, we hope for peace for the world.”