At least three journalists with ties to local stations in the US have been touched by the war between Hamas and Israel, whether by choice or by accident.
For former WAAY reporter Nicole Zedeck (pictured) covering the war between Hamas and Israel is part of her new job. She has been working for i24 News based out of Tel Aviv and said she has had many close encounters with Hamas rockets.
Zedeck left WAAY in January to work at i24 News.
The station said on Wednesday, Zedeck was reporting outside of a hospital near the Gaza Strip.
“While the fighting is happening on the ground, we continue to be bombarded with rockets from the Gaza Strip,” Zedeck told WAAY. “Just today alone since I’ve been here at the hospital, I’ve had to run into the shelter six or seven times.”
Zedeck said while reporting on Tuesday, she broke down after being on-air due to the sights of carnage she had seen. She said out of nowhere, she was comforted by somebody she said she never would have expected.
“One of the soldiers came up to me and he asked, hey, are you ok,” said Zedeck. “That’s just when I broke down because how is this soldier, how is he comforting me now, I should be comforting him.”
WSMV anchor Allen Williams was in Israel on a church mission when the fighting started. He said he was having his morning coffee when the attack happened.
“…I was having coffee and I heard a loud explosion but it kind of sounded like a construction site to me,” Williams said. “But then a server came up to me and told me that I needed to get in a safe place.”
The Knoxville anchor captured video in the Palestinian city of Bethany on Monday, showing damage on just about every street block he passed. Williams said he’s been in touch with U.S. Representative Tim Burchett’s office and the State Department hoping for help after what happened as the group attempted to leave Bethlehem.
“Getting out of there was difficult. We went to a road where we were supposed to get out, but that road was blocked because it looked like a mortar or a rocket hit there and there were soldiers all over the place, so we had to go through Palestinian territory through a mountain range with three vans and we were very very lucky to get back,” Williams said.
San Diego reporter Perla Shaheen is currently in Lebanon. She spoke with her station (KGTV) on Tuesday morning to talk about the conflict’s impact on the Middle East.
Shaheen was in the country to visit her family and said both she and her family are safe from all the conflict.
She also talked about concerns that Hezbollah, the Islamic group in Lebanon backed by Iran, could get involved.