LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Linda Schuster's Israeli vacation came to an abrupt stop around 6:30 a.m. Saturday.

The Louisvillian said she was fast asleep and her husband was headed out for a morning workout when the first siren went off outside their Tel Aviv hotel.

"He was about to walk outside, and the security guard at the front of the hotel said 'No, you can't go outside because there are bombs going off," she said Monday.

Locals know when a siren goes off they have about a minute and a half to get to shelter before they could be faced with missiles, shrapnel or some kind of danger.

Schuster family in Israel

Linda Schuster and her family's Israeli vacation stopped short after Hamas attacks.

"Israel's at war now, and we're in the country," Schuster said Monday. "... The minute the sirens go off, they run to the shelter. And then you stay there until they tell you it's OK."

Backed by a barrage of rockets, Hamas militants stormed from the blockaded Gaza Strip into nearby Israeli towns, killing dozens and abducting others in an unprecedented surprise attack during a major Jewish holiday Saturday. A stunned Israel launched airstrikes in Gaza, with its prime minister saying the country is now at war with Hamas and vowing to inflict an "unprecedented price."

In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside the Gaza Strip, including towns and other communities as far as 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the Gaza border. In some places they gunned down civilians and soldiers as Israel's military scrambled to muster a response.

Thankfully, Schuster's hotel in Tel Aviv, about 40 miles away, was never hit. But their family and many others haven't left the hotel since.

"It felt really scary, actually," she said. "You can hear bombing going on, like we were sitting outside and you can hear it, it's far in the distance, but you can hear it all happening."

Already, civilians on both sides have suffered a terrible toll: around 700 people, including 73 soldiers, have been killed in Israel, and 493 people have been killed in Gaza, according to authorities on each side. Thousands have been wounded on both sides.

Among the dead are nine American citizens, the State Department said Monday. The U.N. said more than 123,000 people have fled their homes in Gaza, many after Israeli warnings of imminent bombardment. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said a school sheltering more than 225 people took a direct hit. It did not say where the fire came from.

Schuster and her family's original flight was canceled but they were able to secure a flight out Thursday to Budapest, where they will catch another flight back to the states.

"I think we're all trying to stay calm, because there's nothing else we can do about it," she said Monday. "We have to keep our heads about us and do the best we can and stay safe."

While Schuster was searching for a way out, a group of about 30 parishioners from St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Nelson County visiting Israel were also scrambling to try and find a way home. State Sen. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, and Bardstown Mayor Dick Heaton worked with the group to coordinate emergency visas to travel out of the country and back home, which is expected Wednesday or Thursday.

"One of the officials in Israel said it was their 9/11, and I think that kind of put it in perspective how serious this attack was and how serious it was to get our folks out," Higdon said Monday.

"We're just very grateful we found out they're safe but we'll feel better when they get completely home," Heaton added.

Another Kentucky church also was on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Broadway United Methodist Church in Bowling Green confirmed Monday its group is in Jerusalem and has secured safe travel home.

Even when all the Kentuckians get home, Schuster prays the conflict in Israel can be resolved and hopes for recovery for the tragedies that have occurred.

"We know that people are suffering throughout the country and we know that that this is a horrible time for Israel," she said.

Israel and Hamas have had repeated conflicts in past years, often sparked by tensions around a Jerusalem holy site. This time, the context has become potentially more explosive, and both sides talk of shattering with violence a years-long Israeli-Palestinian deadlock left by the moribund peace process.

Israel has been stunned by a surprise attack and death toll unseen since the 1973 war with Egypt and Syria. That is fomenting calls to crush Hamas no matter the cost, rather than continuing to try to bottle it up in Gaza. Israel is run by its most hard-right government ever, dominated by ministers who adamantly reject any Palestinians statehood.

Hamas, in turn, says it is ready for a long battle to end an Israeli occupation it says is no longer tolerable. Desperation has grown among Palestinians, many of whom see nothing to lose under unending Israeli control and increasing settler depredations in the West Bank, the blockade in Gaza and what they see as the world's apathy.

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