Irish woman says she was "lucky" to survive Hamas attacks in Israel

An Irish woman living in Israel has said that she was "lucky" to survive the Hamas attacks on Saturday morning after Hamas militants attempted to storm the area where she lives.

Jeanie Ryan Jafari, who is originally from County Mayo, has returned to Ireland via Cyprus following the attacks and said that the current conflict is the "worst" she has experienced during her time in Israel. 

She said she was in her home when Hamas launched the attack on Saturday, with several militants attempting to infiltrate the Zikim kibbutz where she lives. The community is located close to the sea around 5km from Gaza. 

Numerous Hamas terrorists attempted to reach the kibbutz via dinghy but most were intercepted by the Israeli coast guard, she said. 

Ryan Jafari added that three Hamas members managed to make their way ashore and headed for the perimeter of the kibbutz but said they were killed by a local civil patrol. 

She said she feels "very lucky" to have escaped from the attacks unharmed after seeing what happened in neighboring communities and said Saturday's attack "came so fast". 

"We heard the fighting going on but we didn't know what was happening because we had no communication whatsoever because they scrambled all the communication lines and everything else," she told RTÉ News. 

"There were no phones, no electricity, no television, so nobody knew what was happening from kibbutz to kibbutz, or anywhere indeed, it came so fast." 

Ryan Jafari said she has lived in Israel for 40 years and has "never" seen anything like the ongoing conflict. She added that she does not know when she will be able to return home. 

Ryan Jafari said her husband, who works in a hospital in Ashkelon, has remained in Israel and said she is worried about friends who are still in the country, stating that some of her friends died in the attacks. 

"People have been killed, children have been killed, friends that I know," she told RTÉ News.

The Israeli authorities have confirmed that at least 1,300 people were killed in the attacks on Saturday morning, while more than 1,500 Palestinians have been killed in retaliatory strikes from Israel. 

Israeli authorities have dropped leaflets over Gaza warning approximately 1.1 million people to leave their homes immediately. 

"Gaza City has become a battlefield. You must evacuate your home immediately and head to the south Gaza valley." the leaflets state, according to a Sky News translation. 

Ryan Jafari said it would be "terrible" if Israeli ground forces go into Gaza. 

"They're talking about going in with ground forces into Gaza and if that goes on, it will take a long time and it will be terrible," she told RTÉ News.