A Buckinghamshire rabbi has spoken about how the escalated conflict has affected his Jewish community. 

Rabbi Neil Janes, 47, from the South Bucks Jewish Community, has opened up about the painful situation amid the current conflict between Israel and the military group Hamas.

The indiscriminate attacks on both sides since October 7 have resulted in civilian deaths in Israel and Gaza, a strip of land home to 2.3 million Palestinians which has been unlawfully blockaded by Israel for the past 16 years, the UN said.

Although as a rabbi Neil is used to solving problems and give support to the roughly 300-strong Jewish community he serves in Buckinghamshire, the brutal escalation has put everyone on high alert.

During a service on Saturday morning, he was forced to make a shocking announcement to the gathered audience of Christians and Jews that they would “take additional measures so that the service remains safe” as members of the community kept receiving tormenting messages from colleagues and family in Israel.

READ MORE: What is the Israel - Palestine conflict all about?

He said: “Although we have no credible threats at the moment, we could also become a target. At that point [on Saturday], we didn’t know whether Hamas was going to launch a global attack on Jewish people around the world, which is sometimes a threat.

“The community has experienced this in a very real way. Everyone I know who is Jewish knows somebody who has been affected, either they have family or a friend who is trying to find out whether somebody has been kidnapped or burying a loved one or visiting them at a hospital.

“So it’s a very direct and real experience. Saturday’s terror attack is the equivalent of a little village in Buckinghamshire being wiped out in one day, it’s several thousands of people.

“It’s profoundly worrying and very scary to the Jewish community, whilst we at the same time are a community that wants peace and would dearly love there to be peace and would love there to be no more conflict.

"And if you ask majority of my members, they also want a Palestinian state alongside the state of Israel and for everyone to live happily. But this is unprecedented and I think most of my members feel this wasn’t just a cycle of violence but this was a massacre of not just Jews but people who are living in the area.”

Alarmingly, Neil was now supporting parents who were “concerned their children will be exposed to anti-Semitism at school.”

“Some schools are not equipped to deal with anti-Semitism,” he added.

He urged anyone who knew anyone who is Jewish to reach out.

“That doesn’t need to be a political statement, just to check how people are doing. Schools need to be proactive and friends and neighbours,” he added.

Death toll is rising in Israel after attacks by the armed terrorist group Hamas, and in Gaza after bombardment by the Israeli army.

More than 260,000 people in Gaza have had to leave their homes since October 7, according to the UN.

The UN chief Antonio Guterres has called for urgent humanitarian access for crucial supplies such as fuel, food and water to blocked-off Gaza.