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Monday marked one year since Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, killing more than a thousand people and taking hostage 250 others.
The attack is something Simcha Kaplun won’t soon forget — he was in Israel at the time of the attack.
“We were woken by the sirens,” Kaplun recalled. “We didn’t know what’s going on.”
Kaplun was in D.C. on Monday to attend a remembrance event on the National Mall, one year after the attack.
He said he didn’t know right away what happened, but as the day went on, he and others finally realized the full extent of the attack.
“We heard news filter in throughout the day, and it just kept getting worse and worse,” he said.
Hava Tizazu lived in Israel before moving to D.C. in recent weeks. Tizazu said the attack sent panic through her community.
“Especially, for me, as a mother, it was a lot of stress with the kids, and you don’t feel safe,” she recalled.
Wearing a shirt which said “Bring them home” in Hebrew, Tizazu recalled Oct. 7 of last year and how frightened she was.
“It was like having your worst nightmare coming true. I was watching the news, and I couldn’t believe what I’m seeing,” she said.
She remembered vividly the sounds of sirens as she and her family ran to a shelter, and the fear that attackers could get them.
“It was just something that we never, never imagined can happen,” Tizazu said.