HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – The war in Israel continues to impact families in South Florida.
Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy had to fight back tears while speaking to Local 10 News on Tuesday.
“No words, I’m trying to keep it together here,” he said.
A 3-year-old boy, 6-year-old twin girls and their parents who were killed in Israel were relatives of Levy.
“All slaughtered,” he said.
Levy said they were murdered by militants who set their home on fire.
“Their house was burned down, then they were all shot as they tried to flee from the smoke,” he said.
Levy sadly is not alone as many South Floridians have been sharing their grief following the attack by Hamas on Israel, including Israel Consul General Maor Elbaz-Starinsky.
“Captain Abraham Hankin was my brother’s friend,” he said.
Hankin, 38, was a member of an Israeli elite special force and was a husband and father of four children.
The Israeli Consul had to break the news of his death to his family members in North Miami Beach.
“Breaking it to his family, to his brother, was -- if not the most -- certainly one of the most difficult things I’ve done in my life,” he said.
Meanwhile, some people from South Florida are trapped in Israel as they try to make their way back home.
Allison Zur Morag, her husband Ron and their two small children are still trying to get out of the country and back home to safety in Cooper City.
“We came for vacation here a week ago,” she said.
Now they’re spending their days running to shelter with their little ones as rockets fly overhead.
“You can hear it and the closer it is, you can feel it. You hear the walls shake a bit,” Zur Morag said.
On Tuesday, those who were fortunate to get a flight out reunited with their loved ones in South Florida.
“It’s pretty scary, but we’re OK,” one traveler said.