At DFW International Airport Wednesday morning, there were hugs, smiles and kisses as the last batch of students from Dallas Baptist University (DBU) made it back home from Israel.
“Oh, wow. So grateful," said Roy Burdett, whose daughter, Kendalyn, was among the students.
The group was on a school tour cut short when violence broke out.
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“It’s amazing. I’m really lucky to be able to do this," said Kendalyn.
Jay Harley, DBU's vice president of student affairs, was on the trip.
He said he'd meet with students every day to update them, and talk through their feelings. He'd also text them three updates a day so they could forward them to their loved ones.
Roy said he was grateful for the communication, but the moments in between were filled with fear.
“Learning everything in bits and pieces, texts, phone calls, every eight, 12 hours since Friday night," he said. “We’ve been very sleep-deprived and exhausted.”
Harley said although they could hear missiles and sirens, no attack came within 10 miles from them.
“We were in a secure hotel, we were given three meals each day, we had great Wi-Fi," Harley said, thanking tour organizers they were working with.
“It was very tense. We were in a very secure location," Kendalyn said.
A starkly different picture for another North Texan currently in Gaza.
“Two days ago, they bombed just close to them and when I was with him on the line and I hear something, boom, I said, ‘What’s happening?’” said Haifa Kaoud, who lives in Waxahachie.
Kaoud's husband is in Gaza and has felt bombs being dropped around him.
“Shelter, it’s not available," she said. “It’s just the earth underneath and the sky over them."
Kaoud said her husband left DFW International Airport about two weeks ago, meeting up with his brother and nephew in California, then flying into Cairo and driving to Gaza.
They planned to spend two weeks in Gaza, then return to Cairo for their last week of vacation to sight-see before flying back to the U.S.
But that never happened. The Egyptian border, the last access point, is now closed after the bombings.
They are unable to escape Israel's siege: No food, water, medicine or power.
"The human need. Just physiological needs; safety, water, food. They don’t have all this," Kaoud said.
Videos of their fun vacation turned into videos of bomb smoke just feet away, and updates have become few and far between.
“When he sends, he will say, ‘Just pray for us, pray for us. Try anything to get us out," Kaoud said.
That's what the Palestinian American is trying to do, calling immigration services, U.S. embassies, and elected officials.
“I said, there [are] five US citizens in Gaza, please do something to get them out. They are under fire, direct fire," she said.
Those pleas grow more desperate by the minute, as Israel's air strikes pummel 2.3 million people packed into the 25-mile Gaza strip, called an open-air prison by Human Rights Watch.
“It’s like a tuna can, really," Kaoud said. "Nowhere is safe there. They can hit any area.”
Kaoud is now trying to console her kids-- her daughter periodically bursting into tears.
“She’s eight. She’s stressed but she doesn’t know how to… bring it out," Kaoud said.
She's hoping her elected officials can somehow help get her husband back on U.S. soil and hugging his family, once again.
“Me, my daughter, my son are here, just praying, asking for everybody to just pray for him to be back safely," she said.
Waiting for her happy reunion at DFW International.
