October 18th, 2023 – Powerful time with Ilyas Mordochovitch, his wife Neliah and Svetlana Kamilkov, who are part of the GAiN Sponsorship Program. They are WWII refugees and now, for the second time in their lives, also refugees of the current war in Israel. Ilyas and Neliah’s tiny apartment is located 150 meters away from the police station that was assaulted and destroyed by Hamas forces at the beginning of the ongoing war. They had to hide for 8 hours inside of their bomb shelters.

Last Friday, October 13th, for security reasons, they were evacuated by Israeli forces and army, although they did not want to leave their home. Thankfully, they are very well taken care of and have been placed together with many more residents of Sderot in the Setai Tel Aviv Yafo hotel, where they are provided a free stay along with 3 meals a day.

In a similar fashion, 28,000 residents have been evacuated from Sderot, with only around 6,000-7,000 residents that have chosen to not leave their city.

Ilya, Neliah and Svetlana are once again war refugees after evacuation years ago from their cities in their childhood to survive and run away from Nazism.

They are so grateful for the love and care they have been manifested from the members of Helping Hand Coalition for Israel and from all their international friends.