"At the time that I decided to go on the trip, the fighting was heavy, the ground war was going on," Wendy Huss of Roscoe said.
But Huss says her s support of Israel pushed her to go on a four-day trip to the Middle East that took her not far from the battle ground area.
"This is all the buildings of Gaza, that's how close we were to Gaza,"
Huss said.
One of many pictures taken on Huss' journey that never ran into any immediate violence.
But she came close with outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who took a picture with Huss and explained Israel's rationale for retaliation.
"To have any more children in Southern Israel die or have rockets fall, now was the time, there had just been enough," Huss said.
Huss also shared personal conversations with Israeli soldiers, who enlightened her with a sense of compassion even with the back-and-forth rocket fire.
"They believed in what they were fighting for but they did not want to hurt the average Palestinian," Huss said.
As for the people living with the violence over the past month, Huss says there was clear anger.
But everyone still clings on to a patriotic push for peace.
"They always end their conversations with wishes for peace," Huss said.
Since Monday, we've tried to arrange interviews with Rockford's Muslim Community Center for comment. However, we haven't heard back them yet.