(NewsNation) — Adele Ramer, an American Israeli who was born in New York but moved to Israel, spent 11 hours locked in her Kibbutz Nirim home’s safe room as she and her son listened to Hamas fighters burn their town and take their neighbors hostage on Oct. 7.

“We sat there petrified in mortal fear for hours waiting for the army who did not come; they did not come because they were attacked first. The tactics in this were very carefully planned out. They slaughtered the army bases that were near us so that there was nobody that would be able to come and save us,” Ramer told NewsNation.

Ramer, who is part of a delegation of Hamas attack survivors, relatives of attack victims and hostages, went to Washington, D.C., to meet with members of Congress on Thursday to advocate for the release of more than 200 hostages.

“We went there to get their backing so that they can hear the true stories from our mouths, from those of us who experienced it, so that they can go in when the laws are being made and to have the ammunition needed in order to support us with those laws,” Ramer said.

The group met with meet with key senators and members of the House, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md. They wanted to press the case of the hostages with the Congress members, hoping they could do something to help get their family members freed.

“We’re getting such a big hug from the government of America and from those congresspeople and Senators. It was very encouraging,” Ramer said. “Some of them took the posters of kidnaped people and one senator, John Fetterman, pasted his whole wall outside with posters of people that are missing, and we got a lot of support from all of the people that we saw there.”