ABQ woman in Gaza during conflict

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The deadly attacks last week between the Israeli military and Hamas, which governs Gaza, were some of the worst in four years and an Albuquerque native lived through it all.

More than 160 people died in the eight-days of fighting, and Lora Lucero was in the middle of it all.

The retired lawyer who taught at the University of New Mexico is now teaching at the Islamic University of Gaza.

“The situation was very, very tense,” Lucero says. “There was bombing throughout all of Gaza. There was no safe place.”

She says the scariest part wasn't hearing explosions but the sound before a missile actually hit.

“To hear the whoosh of the missile before it lands and you don't know, is it going to land six blocks away or is it going to land on my building.”

To get through it, Lucero's been recording it all—blogging and taking dozens of pictures of the destruction.

Now, four days into a cease-fire, she says things have changed.

“I would say it is much better. It is like day and night.”

Shops are open and students are back in school.

Lucero says she will be in Gaza until at least December and maybe even through the summer.

Then, she can't wait to get back to Albuquerque for what she has missed most...

“It's green chile! I want my green chile,” Lucero says.

The Department of State warns U.S. citizens against traveling to Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza strip, but Lucero says it was important to her to see firsthand what is happening there.