(WXYZ) — Metro Detroiters with close family ties to loved ones in Israel, Lebanon, Gaza and Iran are sharing more emotions around an escalating war.
Today I talked with religious leaders who continue to call for peace as tensions are rising yet again with Iran firing missiles at Israel today.
In the wake of Iran launching a new wave of missiles targeting Israel in response to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, there are more fears being shared here in metro Detroit.
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Community leaders from Ann Arbor and Dearborn Heights see the escalating war from different perspectives, and I asked both for their response to the growing battle.
“There are so many relatives, whether Palestinian or Lebanese or other areas, that’s a very dangerous situation and the person responsible for all this pain and escalation is Netanyahu," said Imam Mohammed Ali Elahi with the Islamic House of Wisdom.
Rabbi Asher Lopatin with the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor said “Hezbollah and Lebanon attacked Israel and continue to attack Israel, Israel is just defending itself. Iran is not just attacking Israel, they are also supplying Russia with missiles.”
Rabbi Asher Lopatin and Imam Mohammed Ali Elahi have both expressed the need for peace to be achieved.
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With Israel's military recently launching ground operations in Lebanon and an estimated 180 rockets from Iran fired at Israel, Lopatin says he’s feared for his own son’s safety, a 19-year-old student south of Jerusalem.
"I was using Whatsapp as he was running to a shelter place. I just spoke with him a few minutes ago," said Rabbi Lopatin.
World leaders have warned of a widening conflict, and the U.S. has already committed thousands more troops to assist Israel.
The war, nearly a year after a Hamas terrorist attack in southern Israel, now being called unthinkable by Elahi, who demands fighting stop before things worsen even further for the sake of those here with loved ones in the Middle East.
“This escalation by Netanyahu and war-mongering didn’t make anyone safer. The Middle East isn’t safer and Israel isn’t safer," said Elahi.
Elahi says the White House is also under heavy scrutiny for not doing more to achieve a cease-fire.
We’ll continue hearing from families impacted on all sides as the war rages on.
