Local voices on the Palestinian-Israeli war

SOUTH BEND, Ind - Even though this war may be happening more than 6,000 miles away, people right here in Michiana are directly impacted by the conflict.

I spent some time today with a local Jewish leader and a local Palestinian man and I could immediately tell this war hits close to home for the both of them.

‘I have family members who are part of the IDF, and I have had nephews that have been called up for reserve duty, so this is personal, it's very close to me and to my knowledge everyone is safe, but this does strike very close to home,” said Moshe Kruger, Executive Director Jewish Federation St. Joseph Valley.

Moshe Kruger woke up on Saturday to a total surprise when he heard that Israel was at war with Palestinian militant group, Hamas.

Kruger even saying that due to the mass casualties, this may be the Israeli equivalent to 9/11.

As of now, war between Hamas militants from the Gaza strip and Israel rages on when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel Saturday morning, during a Jewish holiday.

It's been hard for him to watch news coverage of missile strikes and rockets exchanged between both groups.

Ibin-al-Thowra, a Palestinian mosque-goer at the Islamic society of Michiana, who didn't want his face shown on camera for safety reasons, is disheartened to see the number of casualties due to the conflict overseas.

"So, from January to before this weekend, so until early October, it was 676 Palestinians martyred by the IDF. Over the weekend, already we are at 500 plus Palestinians dead. Just an idea of the numbers, the amount of Palestinian killed in the year, has already almost been met,” said Ibin-al-Thowra.