Miami Beach native shares Israel survival story amid Hamas attack – NBC 6 South Florida

Some South Floridians who are in Israel are living tense moments after Hamas’ surprise attack on Saturday, saying they’re ready to run into bomb shelters at any moment.

Liat Feldman grew up on Miami Beach but had made Israel’s capital of Tel Aviv her home for the past two years.

On Saturday, Feldman’s roommate woke her up after she heard an explosion outside their apartment.

“It’s very difficult to process, it’s only been two days and it feels like it’s been a lifetime,” Feldman told NBC6 Miami on Monday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war against Hamas Saturday after the Palestinian militant group launched a surprise attack on Israel, which the IDF says left at least 700 dead and thousands injured.

Feldman said she’s been taking shelter inside her apartment while outside, her Tel Aviv neighborhood has been taking bombing damage.

“We are still living with sirens going off, still having to run to the bomb shelters, so we don’t really get a minute to stop and breathe and think,” she said. “Basically, every sound that happens outside, we’re afraid that we’re gonna have to run to a bomb shelter.”

The stairwell in Feldman’s building doubles as a bomb shelter, and she has to reach it within 90 seconds of hearing a siren.

“I have friends that have been staying with me because I’m very close to the shelter and so we’ve created kind of a little area within the stairwell where we can run and sit on blankets because we know that this is something that is ongoing,” Feldman said.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said there are more Americans who are unaccounted for.

More than two days after Hamas launched its unprecedented incursion from Gaza, Israel’s military said the fighting had largely died down. The attack caught Israel’s vaunted military and intelligence apparatus completely off guard, bringing heavy battles to its streets for the first time in decades.

Feldman said she and her friends don’t know how longer they’ll have to live like this.

“The shock that we’re still feeling, the people who are still missing, the death toll that is still rising, it has completely stopped everyone in our tracks, and it feels like a nightmare that we still haven’t woken up from and we don’t know when we will wake up from,” she said.