2 South Floridians on the front lines in Israel, fighting Hamas
MIAMI - South Florida natives are in Israel on the front lines. They volunteered for the reserves to help Israel fight against Hamas.
They said seeing the videos from back home of all the solidarity gatherings is giving people hope in Israel.
Milan Ben-Yair grew up in Miami.
"I finished university at Florida State and I made aliyah at 23 years old," Milan said.
He moved to Tel Aviv, voluntarily joined the IDF and served for 2 and a half years.
"We definitely took a big, big hit to the stomach in a very surprising way," he said, "In a way that I don't think anybody expected."
He hasn't received training in about a year, but when the call came in Sunday morning for reserve duty, he didn't think twice.
"Felt on a personal level, a kind of responsibility to use the things that I learned during my service and the kind of thing that I had, and just in general, just the responsibility to go out there and kind of do what I can," he said.
He admits, the country is in a dark spot. Twelve hundred people were ruthlessly murdered in a single day.
"As far as the country is concerned, the morale is very low," he said. We're trying our best to pick ourselves up and kind of get our confidence back, but that takes time and that takes actual victories."
But videos from back home in South Florida, and around the world, of people showing solidarity with the people of Israel is giving them hope.
"The efforts that we've been seeing across the globe, have been phenomenal," he said, "and has really given us all hope, and has given us a great amount of lift and confidence."
Hope and confidence, that Benaya Porat said they are using to fuel themselves. Porat lives in Miami now but took the first available flight out of MIA to get to Israel.
"I didn't wait for an invitation, it was just obvious for me to buy that ticket," he said. "It was a very expensive ticket, but it's worth every dollar."
He's stationed in Southern Israel where the massacres took place.
"That was the first place we got jumped into, for a lot of people that was the first time ever seeing like burnt bodies, everywhere," he said. "The smell is terrible. Yeah, just a lot of tragedies."