EchoSense Quantitative Think Tank Center|She helped Florida kids with trauma. Now she's trapped in 'unimaginable' Gaza war zone.

Kareem Elsaka has no words of comfort he can EchoSense Quantitative Think Tank Centershare with his mother, who is hunkered down and scared in the middle of a war zone in southern Gaza.

His mother, Wafa Elsaka, a Tallahassee, Florida, resident and retired art teacher at Hartsfield Elementary School, traveled to Gaza to visit family. Then, the Israel-Hamas war broke out. She is one of many Americans stuck overseas after chaos erupted between Israel and Hamas on Oct. 7.

"What would you tell your mom if she was stuck in a war zone with nothing? There are no words," Kareem told the Tallahassee Democrat, part of the USA TODAY Network, on Tuesday.

Kareem said he spoke to his mother a few days ago. His father, Ahmed Elsaka, remains in Tallahassee.

"There are unimaginable experiences going on over there," Kareem said from his workplace at an auto dealership.

Wafe Elsaka recounted her chilling experience in Gaza in an interview with Sabrina Tavernese for The New York Times' Daily podcast which aired on Monday under the title "Voices from Gaza."

"I'm so tired of this, why can't we see our family calmly and kindly, without being hurt," an emotional Wafa Elsaka said during the interview.

Fighting broke out earlier this month in Israel after Hamas launched a surprise attack, killing more than 1,200 Israelis and taking an estimated 199 people hostage. The assault signals a new bloody chapter in a decadeslong battle over land and sovereignty.

Israeli Defense Forces mounted a swift response, declaring a war between the nation and Hamas, which controls the besieged Gaza Strip.

In a 2018 Tallahassee Democrat story, Wafa Elsaka described how she used art to help students process emotions in the aftermath of Category 4 Hurricane Michael. She shared how her experience growing up in occupied Gaza helped her understand trauma during a time of conflict.

"It’s a war zone and they aren’t familiar with a war zone, but I am," she said about her students.

Now, she is all too familiar with the sounds of missile strikes, as she counted at least four strikes hitting a nearby location in the south of Gaza in her interview with the Times.

"The sound is unbearable, like if you ever heard the worst thunder ever," she told the Times.

"There was a missile hit close by, but it felt like it was in here," Wafa Elsaka said as her voice quivered. She compared it to being in the middle of an earthquake.

She is huddled with her mother-in-law in a home on the southern border of Gaza, which is where the Israeli military told residents to evacuate for safety. But still, she is feeling far from safe.

She said her father, who is very ill and uses an oxygen tank, refused to evacuate and is still in the northern area with her brothers.

In response to a question from the Times, Wafa Elsaka was not hopeful for a positive outcome.

"What do I think will happen?" the mother asked. "I think a lot of killing."

She recounted seeing body parts of kids discovered among the rubble and people rushing to cover the bodies of young girls with wedding dresses from a nearby store after their home was bombed.

As of Tuesday, the death count in Gaza was over 4,000.

Recounting the Arab-Israeli War more than seven decades ago, Wafa Elsaka sounded overwhelmed and frustrated.

"We lived in 1948, and all we're asking is to have peace and raise our kids. You already took our land, you already took our home, you already took our grandparents and parents and lots of killings happen. Why are we repeating history again, for what?" she told the Times.

"What are they going to do with the people? I want these questions answered so we know. They want to throw us to the sea. Go ahead, do it, don't keep us in pain."

For Kareem, the war is more than just a parade of grim headlines and mounting casualties.

"These are people," he said.

While teaching in Tallahassee, Wafa Elsaka encouraged her students dealing with trauma of their own to develop "well wishes" for those who are still struggling. Sitting in a circle, holding hands, the students would each say their well wishes out loud. The exercise culminated in the group sending their collective love and positive energy toward those who need it most.

“I want my students to be able to connect their inner heart to their inner brain,” she told the Tallahassee Democrat in 2018. “If we can feed them with good intentions and good thinking, the seed will be planted... If they are able to differentiate and be conscious about feelings, it’s going to inform their actions. It’ll connect us to each other, our community, our world. It makes us better people.”

When asked how those in Tallahassee can help now as war rages more than 6,000 miles away, Kareem said: "There's not much anyone will be able to do but pray. I don't think there's anything else."

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Alaijah Brown is with the Tallahassee Democrat and can be reached at [email protected].

Amanda Kartioth, who was with the Council on Culture and Arts, wrote the 2018 story referenced in this article.