South Floridians organize supply drive, send necessities to Israel
MIAMI - Five South Floridians are taking a break from their real jobs, and are now dedicated full-time to organizing a large supply drive and sending necessities over to Israel.
They said Governor Ron Desantis and Florida Senator Rick Scott have helped them send over cargo planes with what they have collected.
"So we have been collecting donations since the first day of the war, brought into a warehouse, pack that prepared it for shipping," Eran Hazan said. "At some point, we had so many pallets to ship that we didn't have enough resources to send them out."
Wednesday, CBS Miami got the first look inside the warehouses.
"Everything in black belongs to the army, yellow civilian, blue will be medical supplies," Lior Hazan said.
It operated more like a factory, lines of volunteers working together in unison.
"The Jewish community, we come together very fast, especially in crisis," Eran Hazan said. "We have a lot of talent here."
One volunteer walked up to a wall in the warehouse where photos of those believed to be kidnapped by Hamas are hanging. She pointed to the photo of Yossi and Margit Silberman. Her cousins.
"My cousin was an angel," the volunteer said. "She worked as a nursery teacher in the kibbutz, and she worked with difficult kids, and she helped them, and they loved her."
She asked organizers to write in Hebrew "zichronam livracha," which means rest in peace. She learned a few days ago that Yossi and Margit never made it into Gaza.
"My cousin and her husband were found on the way from the kibbutz to Gaza," she said, "And they were in a pile with other bodies."
Their kids and young grandkids are still believed to be in captivity.
A child that is nine months, another one that is four years old," she said. "We don't know what's happening to them."
Somehow, she finds the strength to come to the warehouse and put together boxes.
"Being useful is the only way you can handle anything like this," she said.
Shlomi Ezra said he helped start this donation drive when his young daughter asked why he couldn't do anything to bring the kidnapped kids home.
"I won't stop," he said.
Boaz Edri is another founder. He said a member of his motorcycle group, Rolling Thunder, lost his family in Israel. Hadar and Itay Berdichevsky were murdered protecting their 11-month-old twins.
The organizers said that they will continue to remain up and operational for as long as there is a war. So far, they have plans to send over eight cargo plans of supplies.