B.C. woman in Israel describes community's 'complete panic' as war erupts

When the sound of rockets fills Carine Rozen-Marom's home in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan, she tells her two-year-old daughter it's just someone celebrating a birthday.

Rozen-Marom and her husband will then rush their toddler into their building’s bomb shelter and pretend they are having an impromptu family sleepover.

"We keep cookies in there and we smile," said Rozen-Marom. "It's hard. I try not to show my emotions in front of her. I put her to sleep and I cry."

The dual Canadian-Israeli citizen, who grew up in Richmond, B.C., told CTV News she's been overcome with feelings of anxiety and helplessness since war erupted over the weekend.

Within her circle of family and friends, Rozen-Marom knows of two people who have been killed and two others who went missing at the music festival near the Gaza border that was stormed by Hamas militants.

Ben Mizrachi of Vancouver is among the attendees who have not been heard from since the festival came to a sudden, bloody end. 

It’s believed Mizrachi, a trained medic, tended to an injured friend at the festival, according to Ezra Shaken, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Vancouver, who said Mizrachi's phone was located at the scene.

Shaken said Mizrachi’s family has flown to Israel. 

Rozen-Marom said blaring sirens have since become a routine occurrence in Ramat Gan – a city of around 170,000 people located beside Tel Aviv – to warn residents of incoming rocket fire.

"The scary thing is waiting for those compulsory 10 minutes in the safe room and then opening the door, checking the news and seeing, you know, where did it fall," she said.

The closest blast struck about a half-kilometre from the family's home, Rozen-Marom said, shattering the windows of a daycare normally attended by a friend's child.

Media have reported approximately 900 deaths in Israel, with upwards of 130 other people, most believed to be civilians, kidnapped and whisked over the border into Gaza.

Israeli leaders ordered swift retribution, with air strikes reportedly levelling a number of residential buildings, mosques and other structures in the Palestinian territory, killing nearly 700 people as of Monday.

Thousands more have been wounded on both sides.

The atmosphere in the country has been one of "complete panic," Rozen-Marom said, "to a degree people say has never been experienced here before."

Her husband is also among the hundreds of thousands of citizens called to fight with the Israeli military.

"I don't know when he's coming back," she said. "It's very scary."

Israeli officials said the country has largely gained control of its southern towns since the weekend's surprise attacks, and that borders with Gaza have been fortified with tanks and drones to prevent further incursions.

Israel made a formal declaration of war on Sunday, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that retaliatory strikes have only just begun.

"What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations," he said in a televised address.

With files from CTV News Vancouver's Kevin Charach and The Associated Press