A girl killed in an attack at the synagogue says "he was targeting children"



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She was playing with other children in the Poway, California synagogue, when an armed gunman aimed and fired bullets into the congregation.

"I do not even have a word for it, it was terrifying, scary." Noya told CNN. "We will pray and then we are supposed to be supposed to feel safe."

But at the service of celebrating the end of the Passover, no one was safe. Police say a 19-year-old suspect entered the city's synagogue north of San Diego and opened fire.

A woman there to honor her dead mother was killed. The rabbi raised his hands as he faced the shooter. At least one of his fingers was carried away by bullets that crashed with both hands.

And there was Noya. "He was targeting us directly, he was targeting children," she said.

Noya's uncle, Almog Peretz, was shot in the leg. It is believed that shrapnel hit Noya through her right leg. Shrapnel also hit his face.

Almog Peretz was trying to protect Noya, his niece, from the shooter.

Noya left Israel to settle in the United States as a result of rocket attacks on their family home in Sderot.

His father, Israel Dahan, said he had moved his family to Mira Mesa, also north of San Diego, to be safe.

But anti-Semitism appeared in their neighborhood.

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Dahan says that they came to the outside one night of 2015 to find their power outage and their swastikas on their garage and their car.

They were terrified. "We were sleeping in a locked room with knives and a baseball bat because that's the only way to protect my family," said Dahan.

They moved again, a few kilometers from Poway, encouraged and welcomed by Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein and the community.

And then hate broke their lives once again.

"He came to kill us, he came to crush us, the amount of bullets he had on him, he came to destroy this place," Dahan said of the attacker. "He was covered in magazines, they were everywhere on his body."

Noya's father, Israel Dahan, does not know where his family will be safe.

As the Dahans mourn the loss of family friend Lori Kaye, they think again about the impact of hatred.

"It's just dangerous and it hurts when it happens.You can lose family members.That can tear your family apart," said Noya.

She seems mature beyond her years but she has already had more fear in her life than most people.

In the last 6 weeks, churches, mosques and a synagogue have been attacked

"I feel scared and dangerous, as if someone was still behind us and watching us," she said.

His father is upset because he can not make sure his children feel 100% safe.

His instinct is to move his wife and five children again. The problem is that he can not think of any place to go to escape hatred.

"I may need to run again and I have to get ready for the next round," he said.

"It's horrible, yes, but that's the way we live."

Stephanie Becker from CNN contributed to this story.

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