An American physician's assistant on vacation in Israel during Hamas attacks decided to stay and help in a local hospital
- Physician's assistant Michele Freund was on vacation in Israel when Hamas launched surprise attacks.
- Freund told CBS News she decided to stay and volunteer at a Tel Aviv hospital.
Michele Freund, a physician's assistant from New York City, was on vacation in Israel when Hamas militants launched coordinated surprise attacks that killed at least 1,000 people, including at least 22 Americans, and wounded 2,806 others.
Freund decided to put her medical experience to use and began volunteering in a hospital in Tel Aviv — the same hospital where her grandmother, a Holocaust survivor who emigrated to Israel from Hungary, once worked, CBS News reported.
"She would just be so proud of having me here, especially in light of the atrocities that have happened that are very Holocaust-like," Freund said of her grandmother.
CBS News reported that the hospital workers must often run and take shelter from incoming rockets fired from Gaza. Meanwhile, so many people have shown up to donate blood that lines have stretched outside the doors.
Freund, who has friends and family in the Israel Defense Forces, was originally scheduled to return to the US next week. She told CBS News she may end up staying longer since she wants to continue helping Israel and its people, to whom she feels deeply connected.
"The people that I don't know, I feel like are my friends and my family," she said. "Every person that is held hostage right now in Gaza — personally I don't know them, but I know them, and it's really hard."
Hundreds of civilians and military personnel were also taken captive in Hamas' surprise attacks. President Joe Biden called the attacks "an act of sheer evil."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally declared war against Hamas, launching a counterattack during which at least 830 Palestinians have been killed and 4,250 more have been injured in Gaza, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Watch the full CBS News segment here: