Mother killed while shielding her son from Hamas gunmen among US victims in Israel

Ilan Troen said he was on the phone with his daughter in Israel when she was shot and killed by Hamas gunmen while shielding her son from their bullets.

Troen, a professor emeritus from Brandeis University in Massachusetts, said his daughter and son-in-law, Deborah and Shlomi Matias, were killed by Hamas militants over the weekend. Troen's grandson, 16-year-old Rotem Matias, was shot but will survive, Troen told CNN's Poppy Harlow on Monday.

The killings came after the Gaza-based militant group launched devastating attacks on Israel early Saturday.

At least 11 US citizens have died in the conflict in Israel, President Joe Biden said in a Monday statement, adding there are also Americans who remain unaccounted for. It is also "likely" that Americans are among those being held hostage Hamas, the statement said.

As desperate families continue to wait for information about missing loved ones, Troen said he has "too much information" about what happened when the gunmen burst into his daughter's home.

"We were on the phone with Deborah as she was killed," Troen said. "We were on the phone the entire day with our grandson, Rotem, as he lay first under her body, and then found a place to escape under a blanket in a laundry."

Rotem was shot in the stomach, Troen said, but will recover.