On the Ground in Israel: Reporter Shares Firsthand Account of War-Torn Country

Field reporter and former U.S. Marine Julio Rosas, who has been in Israel since last Wednesday, is sharing details from the ground as the war between Hamas and Israel continues. “Just before I signed on to join this podcast, there was—I got alerts on my phone that there were rockets being launched further to the south of us, and so that is currently the biggest threat,” said Rosas, author of “Fiery But Mostly Peaceful: The 2020 Riots and the Gaslighting of America,” as he joined us for an interview on “The Daily Signal Podcast.” “Also, there are some infiltrations attempts still being made, not obviously on [as] big of a scale as the initial attacks, but this is still—it’s a pretty active area,” said Rosas. Rosas was in Sderot, Israel, at the time of the interview. “The more north you go in Tel Aviv, which is where most of the flights go into right now, things are kind of normal. I would say that not as many businesses are open during normal hours,” added Rosas. “And also just the fact, again, rockets get fired all the way as far north over there.” Rosas, who said he was also in Northern Israel, shared that “[i]t’s kind of the same story where the towns along the Lebanese border have been evacuated.” Rosas continued: "There’s not that many people there left, and it’s concerning because there’s still a lot of kind of minimal fighting between the [Israel Defense Forces] and Lebanese and Hezbollah kind of back and forth. So that’s one of the reasons why Israel hasn’t gone fully into Gaza yet, is because they want to make sure that their northern and eastern regions are prepared for any response that they make here down south." Rosas joined today’s episode of “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss what he’s hearing from locals about the Israel-Hamas war, what he wants Americans to know about what he’s seeing on the ground in Israel, and how the situation has changed since he arrived in the war-torn country.