An Elgin-born woman, her husband and their five children, visiting the Gaza Strip when bombing broke out between Hamas and Israel, are thought to be making their way to the Egyptian border among the civilians being allowed to leave the war-torn area, her brother said.

The woman had been in daily contact with her father in Elgin until Friday, the day on which Israel had announced 1.1 million civilians should leave ahead of an expected ground invasion against the Hamas militant group.

“My hope is that this evacuation order south of Wadi Gaza will be the spark (with a million plus forced to the streets) that forces open the Rafah crossing into Egypt,” her brother said in a family statement. “As a family, we hope that our loved ones sensed this potential … and we hope they’ve left their shelter and are making way to the Rafah crossing.”

His comments come one day after his father, Elgin resident John Rauschenberger, spoke to several media outlets about the plight of his daughter and her family, who were visiting his son-in-law’s family, owners of an olive tree farm in southern Gaza.

Rauschenberger, whose sister is Elgin City Councilwoman Carol Rauschenberger, said he doesn’t plan to speak publicly again out of fear for the family’s safety. The Courier-News is not publishing his daughter’s or son’s names for the same reason.

His son’s statement said the family, who lives in Manchester, England, has been finding shelter in various places following the Hamas attack on Israel last weekend and the retaliatory bombing from Israel that has occurred since then.

“(They) were last sheltering in place with 30 people in one apartment … ages 4 to 82 … with children in the group beginning to develop skin infections and rashes due to lack of access to basic hygiene and water,” the statement said.

His sister graduated from New York University and a became a Teach for America teacher, first working in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., before being “recruited by the United Kingdom to help replicate the tenants of the Teach for America program for their country.”

“Most recently she’s spent two years working for the Queen of Jordan’s education foundation, further promoting and instituting public education policy,” her brother wrote.

“My sister is a fighter … she’s a scholar … she’s been a calm, level-headed mother and wife giving strength to their group as they’ve been on the run. I will tell my sister’s story the rest of my life if her voice is muted in Gaza.”

Rauschenberger, whose family’s ties to Elgin go back five generations, said he spoke to the local and national media Thursday to help put a spotlight on the innocent people caught in the crosshairs of the Hamas/Israeli conflict.

Until Friday, he had been able to talk daily to his daughter on her cell phone, which she can charge for about an hour a day, he said.

“To Israel’s credit, they alert them one hour in advance that (they) will be bombing a specific area so they have moved three times,” he said.

Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.

Originally Published: Oct 13, 2023 at 3:33 pm