NewsCenter 5 has confirmed that a professor at a Massachusetts college lost his daughter and son-in-law as a result of the Hamas attack on Israel Saturday morning.Ilhan Troen, a professor emeritus at Brandeis University in Waltham, told NPR international correspondent Daniel Estrin — a former student of his — that his daughter and her husband died while trying to protect their son.”My daughter and son-in-law were killed today, but, in their dying, saved (my grandson’s) life,” Troen told Estrin while at a hospital in Israel. “They were all together in the secure room. And they covered his body, and he was saved. Nevertheless, a bullet penetrated them and went into his abdomen.”Troen graduated from Brandeis University in 1963 and taught at the school for decades. When he retired as a full-time professor of Israeli studies at Brandeis, he moved to Israel to be closer to his children, who live and work there.”We at Brandeis are deeply saddened to learn that Professor Troen has lost his daughter and son-in-law in the tragic events that are currently taking place in Israel,” Brandeis University president Ron Liebowitz said in a statement. “Ilan, a Brandeis alumnus, and his family have long been treasured members of the Brandeis community, and we hold Ilan, his wife Carol, and his entire family in our thoughts.”Northeastern University in Boston, meanwhile, confirmed that three of its students are currently in Israel and that they are all safe following the attack.”Northeastern’s global security operation has been in contact with our students in Israel who are there on co-op. We provided resources and assistance and are helping them evacuate the country,” reads a statement from a university spokesperson.The secretary at Christ the King Parish in Mashpee has confirmed the Rev. Edward Healey in in Israel touring the country with a group of fewer than a dozen people. They departed Sept. 30 and were supposed to arrive back home later this week. Healey and his group are safe at a hotel near the Dead Sea. The church is working with Delta Air Lines to get the group home sooner than planned.In Newton, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller said the Newton Police Department has increased directed patrols of synagogues, shuls and temples in the community as a precautionary measure in response to the Hamas attack on Israel.”There’s been no specific threats or anything like that, but when things happen — even over in the Middle East — and you have conflict like that, we still have to kind of pay attention to that here,” said Newton police Chief John Carmichael.The Israeli government formally declared war Sunday and gave the green light for “significant military steps” to retaliate against Hamas for its surprise attack, as the military tried to crush fighters still in southern towns and intensified its bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The toll passed 1,100 dead and thousands wounded on both sides.More than 24 hours after Hamas launched its unprecedented incursion out of Gaza, Israeli forces were still battling with militants holed up in several locations. At least 700 people have reportedly been killed in Israel — a staggering toll on a scale the country has not experienced in decades — and more than 400 have been killed in Gaza.The declaration of war portended greater fighting ahead, and a major question was whether Israel would launch a ground assault into Gaza, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties.Meanwhile, Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group claimed to have taken captive more than 130 people from inside Israel and brought them into Gaza, saying they would be traded for the release of thousands of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. The announcement, though unconfirmed, was the first sign of the scope of abductions.The captives are known to include soldiers and civilians, including women, children and elderly — mostly Israelis but also some other nationalities. The Israeli military said only that the number of captives is “significant.”As many as 1,000 Hamas fighters were involved in Saturday morning’s assault, according to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking on ABC’s “This Week.” The high figure underscored the extent of planning by the militant group ruling Gaza, which has said it launched the attack in response to mounting Palestinian suffering under Israel’s occupation and blockade of Gaza.Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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