WELLINGTON, Fla. — WPTV is tracking high-level talks between Israel and Hamas on President Donald Trump's peace plan, as it is coinciding with the second anniversary of the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel.
WPTV's Joel Lopez is reconnecting with a family that has been personally affected by this conflict over the years.
WATCH BELOW: Joel Lopez sits down with the Rockmacher family
Vivian Rockmacher expressed, “I don’t think anybody anticipated that it would go this long, and it’s heartbreaking.”
The ongoing war has profoundly impacted her family’s daily life.
“You're constantly looking over your shoulders. You wear a yamaka on your head; you never know what you're going to get, even here in Palm Beach,” said Warren Rockmacher.
“I've never felt like a target before in my life, before now, the way we feel right now.”
The Rockmacher family, a proud Jewish family, shared their story with WPTV when the war first erupted two years ago.
During which they struggled to find flights home for their two children studying in Israel amidst the attacks.
Their daughter, Talia Rockmacher, conveyed the gravity of the situation during a phone interview two years ago: “We've been basically hunkered down, we've been going out to get groceries. Our friends have gone to war; we all know people who have been killed and kidnapped.”
Their children eventually returned home safely.
This brutal assault resulted in the tragic loss of approximately 1,200 Israeli lives, and with around 250 individuals taken hostage, of whom 48 remain in Gaza to this day.
In response to the attack, Israel launched an intense military operation.
Israel's military response in the last two years has resulted in significant Palestinian casualties, with Gaza's health ministry reporting that around 67,000 Palestinians were killed—about half of whom were women and children.
“What do you do when they’re pointing the finger at Israel for genocide on Gaza?” asked Lopez.
Warren Rockmacher responded passionately, “We were attacked after 9/11, we went back, and the United States did whatever they had to do after 9/11. No one claimed genocide. Here’s Israel, a sovereign nation attacked, the worst attack since the Holocaust on Jews. Israel goes and tries to defend themselves; all of a sudden, it’s genocide, and the world is turning against them.”
The geopolitical landscape is further complicated as many nations recognize or plan to recognize Palestine as a country.
WPTV reached out to the Florida Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which declined interviews related to the October 7th anniversary, but their national chapter posted a statement online that read in part:
“It is long past time for the genocide in Gaza to permanently end, for all hostages and political prisoners to go free. The past two years of horror should mark the last chapter, not the latest chapter, in decades of oppression, conflict, and tragedy.”
Warren concluded, “We've been livling with this for two years and the most important thing is we need to remember who started this. It wasn’t the Israelis who started it, they did not start this but they will finish it and we hope that it’s finished soon, and we want it to be done peacefully and we want an everlasting peace in the middle east.”
In the last two years, their children returned to Israel for humanitarian work and to continue their studies but are back full time in the United States.
Despite the ongoing turmoil, their daughter recently got married in Israel, though not without challenges. “I think it was the Wednesday night before the wedding at about 4 in the morning; we were in Tel Aviv, and when those sirens go off and you’re in a dead sleep, you hear them,” Warren recalled.
“It rolled us out of bed, not having any idea what was going on. We ran into the bomb shelter, and it’s not an experience I don’t think either one of us want to deal with again, but this is commonplace for the Israelis.”
Amid these turbulent times, former President Trump has presented a peace plan aimed at ending the war, calling for a ceasefire that would allow for the release of hostages, prisoners, and those who have died from both Israel and Gaza.
The Rockmacher family shared they have a family member fighting in a war and remain cautiously optimistic about the discussions, believing that Trump’s peace plan could be the first step toward bringing this protracted war to an end.
