DENVER (KDVR) — Roxana Dann was right next to the Gaza border when rockets lit up the sky over Israel on Saturday morning.

“When there have been bombings and missiles before, you hear sirens and 15 to 30 seconds to get to a reinforced room,” Dann said. “But this time, there was no warning, just booms in the air.”

Dann was born and raised in Colorado. She was born at Rose Medical Center and attended both George Washington and East throughout her high school years.

She then moved to Israel in 1972, when she was 18 years old.

“I’ve been here ever since,” Dann said.

Family takes shelter after attack on Israel

On Saturday, she was visiting her son in Kfar Aza, a community about 15 miles from the Gaza Strip and 500 yards away from the Gaza border. She said around 6:30 a.m. Saturday is when the bombings started.

“None of us have any clue how long it’s going to last for,” Dann said.

She and her family hid in a reinforced room until Sunday at around 1 a.m. when they were evacuated by Israeli soldiers.

“Suddenly, you hear different firing sounds, like rifle fire and gunfire, but then I realized, wait a minute, that was a grenade,” Dann said.

She said her family was able to get on buses and driven out of the area with multiple soldiers keeping watch. Dann and her husband eventually made it to their home, also in Israel and about an hour and 50 minutes south.

“There has never been an intentional attack of this nature on civilians,” Dann said. “Terrorism is supposed to be an attack on civilians and create panic, but this has never been.”

FILE – People stand outside a mosque destroyed in an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Yousef Masoud, File)

Dozens killed in Kfar Aza, Israel

Dann said Monday afternoon that 40 people from the small community where her son lived were killed. She said many others are missing.

“The mayor of the place where my son lives was one of the first people killed on Saturday morning,” Dann said.

Dann also said a woman she knew through her university research group was one of the hundred or more people kidnapped.

“There was a young woman kidnapped out of her home along with her kids. They abandoned the two kids by the fence and they were found by neighbors,” Dann said. “This is a woman I know personally because she was a student of mine in my research unit at the university. I know her.”