Over the summer, senior Jewish studies major Caleb Koffler left the comfort of business meetings and boardrooms for bomb shelters.

Koffler spent 10 weeks of the summer in Tel Aviv, Israel, amid the onset of the Israel-Gaza conflict that has dominated headlines since June. Koffler, the president of this univeristy’s TAMID chapter, which is a secular, apolitical Israel investment program, arrived in Israel for his internship with a venture capital fund one day before the bodies of three Israeli teenagers were found, triggering the clash between Israel and Hamas.

“At any point in the day, there would be a rocket alarm, a siren that would go off,” Koffler said. “We’d go to the shelter for about five to 10 minutes. That went on for about a month.”

Koffler, who has been to Israel 16 times, is one of many students at this university affected by the fighting in the Gaza Strip. The Gaza conflict resulted in 69 Israeli deaths and more than 2,100 Palestinian deaths, according to the United Nations.

The U.S. State Department issued a warning for U.S. citizens traveling to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza back in July, after a rocket fell miles away from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport on July 22. The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily prohibited U.S. airlines from flying in and out of Tel Aviv after the strike.

Shir Kantor, a sophomore physiology and neurobiology major, and Eli Tobias, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, also traveled to Israel this summer during the Gaza conflict. Although Tobias said he felt safe throughout his trip, the FAA’s 24-hour travel ban sparked his concern.

“I didn’t know if I could get out if something were to escalate,” he said.

However, Koffler, Tobias and Kantor all said they were not overly concerned about their safety in Israel during their stays.

“I can’t say that [the situation] was scary because Israel spends a lot of money taking care of it citizens, providing bomb shelters, providing Iron Dome defense systems and whatnot,” Kantor said. Iron Dome is an air-defense system that shoots down rockets aimed at populated areas.

Koffler described his experience as more “irritating” than scary, as the frequent trips to the bomb shelter would disrupt the work he was doing, but he began to feel fear when the ground invasion of Gaza began. As the death count increased on both sides, Koffler said, no one saw an end to the conflict.

Kantor, who made the trip to Israel to visit family, called the situation exhausting, stressful and pervasive.

She described how radio broadcasts and television were permeated by updates on “code reds” from Israel’s early-warning radar, and the clash was all anyone could talk about in person, too.

“It’s just really emotionally stressful and kind of traumatic in a way,” said Kantor. “Everyone is always ready. You sleep with your clothes on and your shoes by the bed.”

In one instance, Kantor was in a car with family when an alert was issued. Because no bomb shelters were nearby, they were forced to hide in a ditch.

Despite the scares, Kantor, an Alternative Breaks fellow, and the other students who visited Israel encouraged others to make the trip.

“There are problems in Israel,” Koffler said. “There’s a political situation that’s a nightmare. Your physical safety — not a problem in Israel.”

Tobias, whose travels to Israel this summer included a 10-day Birthright trip and a stint with Technion-Israel Institute of Technology , recently became a Birthright recruiter for Maryland Hillel. He said he hopes students wouldn’t decline the opportunity to go to Israel because of the events of this summer.

“Honestly, you can’t go more than a block without seeing three [Israel Defense Forces] soldiers to defend you,” he said. “They have a very quick response time to any event that may occur.”

Tobias also mentioned the value of studying abroad in Israel by taking advantages of offerings such as public universities, on-the-job experiences and tech startups.

Kantor would like to plan an alternative break to Israel once the political climate is a little calmer.

“It would be really cool to see a trip that goes to Israeli as well as Arab communities within Israel, and kind of talk to both sides and see how mutual understanding can be achieved because I think that the future of this conflict — a peaceable future, hopefully — will not come from governments, but from the people themselves,” she said.

Even with a recent Gaza cease-fire, relations remain fragile. Koffler, who is involved in Maryland Hillel and is the president of TAMID, said it will be business as usual.

“We’re going to continue doing what we do, which is building a professional relationship [and] creating hands-on business opportunities for ourselves through business with start-ups in Israel,” he said.

The Hillel already has a great deal of Israel programming, including discussion groups for those who visited Israel this summer and pro-Israel education. Tobias and Kantor both think it would be beneficial to stimulate political discussions through education.

“First, you need to make sure everyone is up to speed on the climate of the situation,” said Tobias. “Once people are adequate enough with their information to talk, then we can start talking about opinions on what Israel’s response should have been or how well their response is to date.”

Tobias added that it is important to remove religion from these discussions. Kantor advocated to “disagree with ideas and not with people.”

Tobias said he made lifelong friends during his summer and envisions going back. But for Kantor, who has family in Israel, the stakes are a little different.

“If I could, I would get on a plane and go back right now,” she said. “It’s like you want to be there. Even though you know you can’t help, just being there with my family in the shelter, you feel safer with them, and I know that they’re safe with me.”

Kantor’s cousins had contrasting attitudes toward the sirens during the Gaza conflict: While some were terrified, others thought running to the shelter was fun.

Kantor said she couldn’t decide which response was more horrific.

“[The conflict] was really kind of heartbreaking, and it gives you a sense of hopelessness and defeat because it’s something that has been going on for years and that everyone thinks will be going on for years, and all I can really do is run to the shelter,” Kantor said.