Barak Shmuel, a 17-year-old American Israeli and survivor of the Hamas attacks, spoke to Newsmax and said that he's looking forward to his service in the Israeli military, and the violence that happened that day has only motivated him to do more.
"[That] Saturday morning, I was with two friends and we were on our way to work out," Shmuel, who is originally from Colorado, said on Newsmax's "Sunday Report." "We're preparing for the army, actually. And on our way there, we got caught by a rocket attack ... we're used to that, you know, so we heard the sirens and we found cover."
But the attack was "much more intense" than a usual attack, said Shmuel, as the "explosions were much harder, everything was much louder than the amount of rockets fired. It was way more. It was ridiculous, so we found cover, and when it was clear, we ran back home."
He said then he started getting videos "of terrorists running around, and I didn't understand what was going on."
"At first, I laughed," he said. "I was very confused. It made no sense — and then it kept on coming, and the videos kept on coming, and I realized that this is real, so I locked the house and that was kind of the moment of realization that this is going on."
Shmuel, who said he lost a friend in the initial attack, is in training for the Israel Defense Forces, and wants to do for others what the soldiers "are doing for us."
"When I see them fighting and protecting us, I just wish I could be there with them," he said. "You can ask anyone and they will tell you the exact same thing. That's how important this country is to us. The civilians, it's our country. It's the soldiers and civilians, we're together in this."
He added that when he looks at his future career, "I want to make the most out of it. I want to be a fighter. I want to do what these guys did for me, for other people. The situation does not scare me; it only boosts my motivation to do that."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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