‘Too tired to be afraid': Team evacuates families and supports soldiers in Israel

Michael Mistretta woke up Saturday to the sound of sirens, an uncommon occurrence for the city of Jerusalem. The militant group Hamas had attacked Israeli towns near the border of Gaza and claimed to have taken 150 people hostage at the time.

Two hours into the conflict, Mistretta had mobilized his team and was on the frontlines helping evacuate families and getting critical supplies to displaced people. 

“It was just really a slaughter, it’s also where they found several babies killed and massacred,” Mistretta, the CEO of Jerusalem-based Fellowship of Israel Related Ministries, said about a community near Gaza. 

Mistretta, along with his wife, Vanessa, from Tampa, Fla., founded FIRM nearly 10 years ago. 

The team serves as a network to more than 72 local churches and ministries helping them collaborate and support people in the area. 

With about three hours of sleep a night, the team of 24 people and its partner organizations are traveling from its “war room” in Jerusalem to communities on the border of Gaza and across the country distributing 1,000 meals, supporting funeral planning and getting necessary items to soldiers each day. 

Mistretta said he begins the day by going to the center and fielding calls from people in need for several hours. Most are requesting logistical support.

From 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., he and his team gather for a moment of prayer and reflection. 

“Everyone on our team knows someone who is in the army unit,” he said. “So there’s a lot of very real emotions.” 

Following a time of reflection, the team travels somewhere, oftentimes to the border of Gaza, where it meets with impacted families and listens to their needs. 

The team returns to Jerusalem 5 p.m. local time, where it continues to collaborate with aid organizations to meet the needs of people suffering from a depletion in resources.

Michael said he spends most of the night interacting with news organizations and following any updates.

Supporting soldiers

Since war broke out, Israel has mobilized its reserve unit and is preparing for a possible ground assault in response to the bloody terror attack by Hamas. 

“They all left instantly when the crisis happened,” he said Thursday. “They got the call, they stopped what they were doing, and they came. A lot of them didn’t bring underwear, socks, blankets, or a change of clothes.”

In addition to bringing everyday necessities, Mistretta and his team are working to supply items that may be needed for a longer conflict. 

Some of the items include military-grade ceramic bulletproof vests, washing machines, stovetops and Power Banks -- similar to portable chargers. 

“A lot of these reserve units are in the middle of the field, in the middle of the desert, in the middle of nowhere,” he said. “The only way for the troops to stay in touch with their family is to provide those Power Banks.” 

Aside from great physical need, the team is also seeing immense need for emotional and mental support among Israeli civilians and soldiers. 

Families impacted by terror

Mistretta met a Messianic Jewish pastor from Sderot, a city less than a mile away from Gaza’s border. 

The pastor woke up Saturday morning to the sound of a "man screaming 'Allahu Akbar,' which is typically an Arabic thing they’d call out when they’re about to kill someone,” he said. 

The pastor stepped outside to see multiple bodies laying in the street in front of his house. 

“There was a bus that was about to take people on a trip to the Dead Sea,” he said. “It tried to let people off the bus to go to a shelter, because of the sirens. That was the very moment the Hamas terrorists pulled up on a truck and they just slaughtered and massacred everyone there.”

The pastor was held there by Hamas terrorists for 72 hours. 

Mistretta said the pastor and his two sons are traumatized to an “unthinkable” level. 

His team later met a family from a community on the border. More than 100 people in their town of about 1,200 people were killed. 

The father said his daughter, a young girl, found multiple dead bodies. 

“You can see in her eyes, just that level of trauma,” Mistretta said. 

The father said his daughter was most upset about missing her bicycle, so the team went up the road and bought her one.

“It was just a little taste and piece of home in the midst of a season where everything, your life, has turned upside down," Mistretta said.

‘Not business as usual’

Michael Mistretta is calling on people around the world to remember the personal nature of the conflict and its impact on Israel, a country only about 8,630 square miles in distance, according to its embassy. 

“This is not just on the scale of 9/11,” he said. “For us, it’s much larger. It's probably 10 times larger than the scale of 9/11 … everything feels personal. Everyone knows someone who’s serving in some way.”

Despite the impact, Mistretta said that he “may be too tired to be afraid.”