JERUSALEM, Israel — A St. Louis teenager who is studying abroad in Israel for the semester is starting her journey home to the United States.
Kate Wallace, a senior at Parkway West High School, left for Israel in August and wasn’t expected to return until December. That all changed Saturday, Oct. 7 when Hamas militants attacked Israel.
Wallace said her roommate woke her in the middle of the night.
“The sirens were going off and we were told we were being bombed,” she said.
Katie and her fellow students ran to a nearby bomb shelter.
She said, “We returned to the bomb shelter seven more times that day because we were under heavy fire from Gaza.”
From a busy dorm room, Katie described what life has been like the last four days since the war broke out.
“You hear constantly the Iron Dome intercepting missiles, we see the warnings all throughout Israel, we literally feel the ground shaking,” she said.
She said the violence has brought grief and death to her Israeli school.
“All my teachers have lost really close friends and they don’t know the whereabouts of other friends and family,” Katie added.
The 17-year-old said hate from her hometown of St. Louis is also reaching her via social media.
“The hatred I’m already facing from home, I’ve been threatened by some of my classmates physically," she said. I already spoke on the phone with my principal because I’m so concerned with these threats I’m already facing,” she said.
A spokesperson for the Parkway School District confirmed Katie spoke with the principal of Parkway West High School and he is looking into the threats.
Katie and her fellow students are planning to head to the airport Tuesday evening (CST) and board flights to Europe.
“Towards the airport where more missiles are being dropped and being in an airport right now just doesn’t seem safe. I mean they’re doing everything they can to keep us safe but it’s still terrifying,” she said.