Sen. Cory Booker (D–NJ) was jogging in Jerusalem on Saturday when he got "an urgent call" urging him to get back to his hotel, he says in a video he posted Sunday night (see below).
"Israel was under attack. There were thousands of rockets being launched," he says. "When I got back to the hotel, I joined others in the bomb shelter — or the stairwells — of the hotel."
"Frightened faces, there were children and elderly, families, many Americans," he continues. "There was a sense of fear and worry and a knowledge to many of us that there were horrific things going on around the country at that time."
"We who believe in peace and freedom and human rights for Palestinians, for Israelis, for all humankind, must reject those who use terror as their weapon."
Booker, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had been scheduled to speak at a summit on Tuesday. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) was also in Israel over the weekend with his wife and three of his children to attend a Bar Mitvah. Both lawmakers were able to safely leave Israel for New York, according to Politico.
More than 1,100 people — 700 in Israel and 400 in Gaza — have been killed and thousands of others wounded since the attacks began, according to AP News.
