Ukrainian refugees who fled to Israel face grim reality of ‘round two’ amid Hamas attacks

Ukrainian refugees who fled to Israel are facing the grim reality of an entirely new conflict after Hamas terrorists launched an attack on the country over the weekend.

Ahuva Rosilio — who moved her family from Odessa to Jerusalem in the early days of the Russian invasion — told The Post Tuesday that the shock and awe from the recent terror attack was “all too familiar.”

“It’s round two – that’s what it feels like, we just did this last year,” Rosilio, 28, said.

“This feels all too familiar to how the war felt in the beginning of Ukraine.”

The mother of four children, all under 10, said she had to run to the building’s safe room as rockets were flown overhead. The terrifying experience brought a flurry of conflicting feelings.

“It’s the same thoughts running in my head: ‘Is this just the beginning, or is this the worst of it?’ Should I get out while I still can? Where am I going to go this time? This is my home – I’m not leaving!’” she recalled.

“But my kids, I have to keep them safe – this won’t last long, but that’s what I thought when I left Ukraine.”

The fresh trauma from the Ukraine invasion looms very large against the shocking terror unfolding in her new home.

“I left one war – all of my belongings, all my life – to start over where I thought would be best for my children, the safest place, Jerusalem, my home,” she said.

The contrast between Russia’s premeditated invasion and the surprise attack by Hamas left the Rosilios in shock. 

“It wasn’t like in Ukraine when there was talk for weeks — when we had time to plan an evacuation,” she said, describing the hours before wailing sirens, filled with the joy of the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah.

“There was so much happiness, so much normalcy.”

With thousands of Ukrainians fleeing to Israel amid the invasion, Rosilio, who’s Orthodox, said that settling in Israel was a relief that provided her with a deep and palpable peace.

“We got out just in time,” she said of her flight, one of the last out of the Odessa airport, bombed hours later. “Last year, the kids knew what was happening in Ukraine and why we left home, with all the talk of war.”

But Rosilio, an American who called Ukraine home for five years, said that fleeing won’t solve the problem this time.

“It’s not about the country or the land – it’s about being Jewish. Their goal isn’t to take over a land – it’s to kill us,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if we go to America or Cyprus. If I’m a Jew, I’m at risk. They’re waging war on a people.”

Another Ukrainian refugee, Malki Bukiet, fled her home near a military base in Zhytomyr, Ukraine – which she feared would be bombed in the Ukraine invasion.

“It’s unbelievable – we come from a war in Ukraine, and now we’re falling into a war in Israel,” she told The Post.

The mother of nine trekked 13 hours across to the Carpathian mountains and over the border to Romania – packing “only a small bag.”

Bukiet found peace last year in Ashkelon, the coastal city in southern Israel near the Gaza border where she runs the Alumim Chabad Children’s Home with her husband, Zalman.

‘We’re not in war anymore,’” she recounted of her Ukrainian escape last February.

But that temporary peace was shattered during the savage Hamas surprise attack on Saturday.

“It was very scary – we had hundreds of rockets that broke all the glass in my house and broke the roof – but we’re alive,” the 42-year-old told The Post Tuesday from her temporary shelter in Central Israel.

Bukiet said the children are resilient despite their unfortunate circumstances, yet their vulnerability and innocence reveal themselves.

“For the kids, first they had Ukraine. They knew something happened, but they thought of it like a big trip, moving to Israel,” she said.

“They were traumatized because they left everything behind – school, their stuff – and it took time for them to process the trauma.”

But the children, ages seven through 17, finally acclimated – to the language, school and new friends.

“They felt at peace – and safe,” she said about their time spent in Israel before the attack.

With a team of therapists, the youngsters are working through their anxiety amidst the rockets and savagery.

“Some are more scared – they jump with every noise,” Bukiet said. “They’ve been through so much. We don’t know why or how, but this is their path, and it will be for good.”