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During the outbreak of this most recent round of war with Hamas, my family and I were in Israel celebrating our oldest child's Bat Mitzvah.

On Saturday, when fighting broke out, we were enjoying a day trip in the Rehovot area, in central Israel - not yet knowing that fighting had broken out. I recall noticing several fighter jets taking off and landing at a nearby airbase, which I found particularly odd. This much military action would not ordinarily be taking place on Shabbat. Moments later a friend called to let me know that Israel had finally struck at Hamas.

After thousands of missiles, ongoing threats, shootings and a massive build-up of arms in Gaza by Hamas, Israel could no longer bear the threat and violence against it's civilians and had finally responded.

Although we were in Israel for the first few days of fighting, life went on, with grave concern for the hundreds of thousands of civilians in harm’s way, as well as the IDF troops. The Israelis are a resilient bunch. Everyone I interacted with felt this was the appropriate time and move by the IDF. Perhaps this round of fighting will, once and for all, address the ongoing threat of Hamas, they hoped.

Our prayers go out for the safety of our brethren in southern Israel and for the IDF troops on the front lines of this conflict. We pray that a sound IDF response will eliminate the ongoing terrorist threats, so we all may live in peace and prosperity.

Brian Eglash