Students gathered Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to express support for Israel.
Pictures of people reportedly kidnapped or killed in Hamas' weekend attacks in Israel lined the walkeway to MIT's student center. They were posted by Israeli and Jewish students who organized the rally.
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"We need you guys to stand with us and pray for them," said Liyam Chitayat. "Pray that all of the people that have been taken captive will be brought back.
Chitayat says she moved to Massachusetts from Israel two years ago to earn her PHD. Since the violence erupted this weekend, she has been worried for her loved ones back home -- many of whom have been in hiding.
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"My heart is there. My friends are there. My family is there. I have not slept," she said. "My brother tells me that he is scared every time he runs to the shelter."
MIT alumnus Boaz Fachler said he joined the rally to feel the support of people who understand what he's going through.
"I'm trying to work to distract myself," he said. "But the horror stories, and my brother fighting in the south to protect our communities -- I can't stop thinking about them."
President Joe Biden has expressed full support for Israel. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was heading to Israel, where he is expected to arrive Thursday.
As of Wednesday, Israel's government says more than 1,200 are dead in that country, with the Palestinian Health Ministry reporting at least 1,100 dead in Gaza.
There are likely dozens of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza; Biden said an unknown number are American.
In the meantime, rockets continued to fly over southern Israel near the border with Gaza. Most were intercepted by the country's Iron Dome system.
The Israeli defense forces continued to strike back at Gaza, warning people living there to leave. To help with its defense, the first plane carrying U.S. armaments landed in Israel. That's as the U.S.S. Gerald Ford Carrier Strike Group arrived in the eastern Mediterranean Sea for support.
While the U.S. is pledging help, Congress can't pass emergency military aid until House Republicans elect a new speaker. GOP members plan to hold an internal election on Wednesday to decide whether they have enough votes to head to the House floor.
Meanwhile, there has been a lot of engagement from young people since the conflict broke out over the weekend.
Whether it's students organizing rallies and voicing their pleas here at home, or young Israelis being called to war, this is, in many ways, a fight of their generation.
Everyday, stories continue to surface of people fleeing the violence, including those who have witnessed it firsthand, or those who know of loved ones caught in the crossfire.
Tuesday night, NBC10 Boston spoke with a Northeastern nursing student doing a co-op in Tel Aviv, who arrived in Boston after making it out of the war zone.
She described how she felt when she was woken up early Saturday morning by sirens, and ran to a bomb shelter for cover after Hamas began launching rockets over Israel.
"We didn't know what was going on, but we knew to run downstairs to the bomb shelter," Keren Doherty said. "It was this sort of storage closet, concrete, and we had a locked door, walked down more stairs and there was another locked door. We didn't have electricity in there... Northeastern was actually sending out alerts and making sure I was okay as a Northeastern student."
