As the conflict between Israel and Iran escalates, some Americans have found themselves caught in the crossfire on the ground in Israel as missiles fall from the sky.
1,500 Jewish-Americans in Israel had to be evacuated this week. Among them were some teenagers and young adults from Houston.
One Houstonian making her way back is Sophie Sorkin.
Her mother, Shelley Sorkin, tells KPRC 2 that Sophie was part of a group doing volunteer work in Israel when the conflict erupted.
“She’d only gotten through like one week of volunteering and they really didn’t do much in the country yet. They had just volunteered a little bit," Sorkin said.
Sorkin said her daughter was in the City of Jaffa, which is just south of Tel Aviv. She says her daughter had been to Israel before in the past and had used a bomb shelter before, but this time was different than before.
“Sophie’s group was staying in a hotel in Jaffa while they were volunteering, and I think they were there for about three or four nights while the war was going on and they were in and out of shelters. Some nights it was two times a night and sometimes it was five times a night,” Sorkin said.
Sophie and other people from the Hasidic Jewish organization Chabad were eventually evacuated by boat to the island country of Cyprus.
Sorkin says her daughter was able to get a flight from Cyprus to Germany and is making her way back to Houston.