"Really terrifying": Northeastern student returns home from Israel after Hamas attack
BOSTON - A Northeastern University student who was in Israel when the country was attacked is now back home.
Keren Doherty and her parents arrived in Boston Tuesday night after flying out of Portugal. She and her mother were in good spirits, but still clearly coming to terms with everything they saw and experienced.
"Scared, worried about everyone," Keren Doherty said at Logan Airport Tuesday night. "I think I sort of knew that I was safe because I was close to shelters, but just worried about everyone I know who isn't necessarily safe."
"The rockets weren't what was new," said Lauren Doherty, Keren's mother. "What was new was the infiltration by the land and by sea and that people were taken hostage and people were murdered in their homes."
Speaking to WBZ from a Portugal airport earlier on Tuesday, Keren Doherty detailed her experience. She was in Tel Aviv last Saturday morning when Israel came under attack by the terrorist militant group Hamas, claiming the lives of hundreds and injuring thousands.
"We woke up to sirens and we immediately - you know, didn't think about anything - just ran down to the bunkers, to the bomb shelters and we didn't know what was going on," Doherty said.
Surrounded by other students in the bunker, Doherty says Northeastern did an amazing job keeping her informed through emails, and she spent the time glued to her phone watching events unfold.
"Obviously terrified, but so in the moment that I feel like we didn't have to time think about how scared we were. It was just sort of, like, robotic. Like you need to know what to do, get to where you need to go quickly and just worry about safety," she said. "It's sort of now, two days or so removed, that I'm like that was really terrifying."
Doherty is studying to be a nurse and had been in Israel for the past three months as part of her co-op internship program at a hospital in Tel Aviv. She was also volunteering as a first aid responder for an ambulance service. This past week, her parents happened to be visiting her as well, which helped ease just some of the tension.
"I am very grateful that I was able to get out, but I know a lot of people still struggling there," she said. Doherty says this was her first time ever in a bomb shelter. She says she will never forget the images she saw and the horror that's unfolding in Israel.
"I think this was an act of terrorism, and its terrible, and I think over in the U.S., we need to know that and we need to give our support to the people of Israel," she said.
