No mother should ever have to explain war to her children. She shouldn't have to live in fear as she tries to reassure her children that everything is OK when it most certainly is not. But that is the reality for mothers on both sides of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Thousands have been killed and even more injured in both Israel and Gaza, yet mothers are tasked with trying to help their children continue to live their lives as normally as they can amid the sounds of bombs and gunfire. It is difficult to even think about.
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While a war wages, mothers must still be mothers.
NBC News foreign correspondent Raf Sanchez spoke with mothers on both sides of the battle lines living a nightmare. Israeli mother Dorin Cohen explained she was home in Kfar Aza on October 7 when the first attack happened. She knew something was terribly wrong.
"It was a lot of bombs, and then we heard voices of terrorists and shots, gun shots," Cohen explained via Today. "And then we understood that we have terrorists in the kibbutz."
The family hid in a safe room, hoping to avoid death.
Cohen said she and her husband and sons went to the room and sat there for 27 hours as her husband held the door closed. They were without food or water, and Cohen said her baby cried because she couldn't produce breast milk under such stressful circumstances.
"I thought he was going to die. I didn't know what to do because if I open the door, we're all dying. And if I don't open, just him," she explained. The family was rescued as their home burned to the ground.
A Palestinian mother and her family fled Gaza.
Jumana Shahin told NBC News that she and her family had no solid plans of where to go but had to leave. The mother said she is heartbroken that her 2-year-old daughter, Sophia, has to live this way. "Sometimes I feel like guilty because she's living such situation, and I can't even celebrate her birthday," Shahin said, per Today.
She added that there are few supplies for the refugee families, making the situation even more challenging.
"There's no electricity, there's no food, there's no cleaning water, there's no medicine, there's no houses," Shahin told Sanchez, according to Today. "The situation is getting harder and harder and harder every day."
During the conflict, the mothers have done their best to shelter their children from physical and emotional harm.
Their children hear war sounds, and both mothers said they've made up stories to help ease fear.
Shahin said she told Sophia she was hearing the sounds of a "big car." "That's all what I can reply to her, but she can recognize the sound," she said.
Cohen blamed noises on the weather. "We told him that we have storm outside so we can't go out," she said via Today.
She added that hearing her older son talk to other children about what is happening is heartbreaking. "The oldest one is different. He's crying, and he's very sensitive. And he's always telling his friend that our house destroyed and asking, 'Was your house destroyed, too?'"
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Fatalities are steadily rising as the war continues.
According to CNN, the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Health Ministry reported the death toll as of October 23 was 5,087 people. That number includes 2,055 children and 1,119 women. An additional 15,000 people have been injured.
