 "'Mom died on top of me': Heartbreaking tales of survival from the Israel-Hamas war")
The Israeli government is under intense public pressure to topple Hamas after its militants stormed through a border fence Saturday and killed hundreds of Israelis in their homes, on the streets, and at an outdoor music festival. The war, which has claimed more than 2,500 lives on both sides, is expected to escalate. Over 150 people are abducted by the Hamas militants during sweeping raids on Israeli towns and villages. They include Brazil nationals, Britains, Italians, the Philippines nationals, and Americans, among many Israelis. “Killed at point-blank range” Sahar Ben Sela, one of the survivors of the Hamas militant attack on Nova Nature Party at Kibbutz Re’im in the Negev desert close to the Gaza Strip, has recounted his experience of the horrible incident while he is recovering in a hospital. Speaking to Israel’s Channel 12, he shared, “They stopped the music, we were told that there were emergency sirens, and after a few minutes, the producers of the party screamed there are terrorists,” adding that he along with his 10 friends got into cars and tried to escape, and were led to a concrete bomb shelter by a policeman. “There were about 30 of us. After a few minutes, the terrorists started shooting at us and neutralised the policeman right in front of us,” he said, adding, “They threw a first grenade that exploded at the entrance of the shelter. After a minute of shouting, praying, and screaming from pain, they threw another grenade that hit me in the head. I stood against the wall in the second row of people and the grenade flew to the bodies behind. They were the ones getting hit, and this is what saved us.” “After half a minute, a friend tried to get out of the shelter because she was suffocating inside. Her partner and I tried to grab her, but we didn’t manage to. She ran right into a terrorist and was shot from point-blank range,” he added.
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When parents became shields for their children According to The Associated Press, an Israeli-American teenager survived a siege on his home by Hamas attackers over the weekend after his parents shielded him from the gunfire but were killed themselves. The family lived on a kibbutz in southern Israel near the border with Gaza. They had less than a minute to seek safety after being alerted to the attack. As the fighters invaded their home, they scrambled into a tiny room meant to protect them from rocket attacks. Shlomi Mathias had his arm blown off trying to keep the fighters out of the room, relatives said. As fighters peppered the room with gunfire, Debbie Mathias yelled at her son, Rotem, to get down. Then she was shot dead; the bullet traveled through her and hit him in the stomach. [caption id=“attachment_13240872” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]
This image provided by Eran Shani shows Shlomi Mathias playing the guitar as his wife, Debbie ‘Shahar’ Mathias, laughs and sings next to him at her 50th birthday party on 1 October 2023. AP[/caption] Rotem Mathias, 16, stayed underneath his mother and played dead for about 30 minutes before running for shelter under a bed and eventually hiding under a blanket in an adjacent laundry room, relatives told AP. Twice, Rotem Mathias managed to elude the fighters — some of them laughing — before he was rescued by Israeli soldiers. “The last thing my dad said is he lost his arm. Then my mom died on top of me,” Rotem Mathias told ABC News in an interview from the hospital where he was being treated for gunshot and shrapnel wounds. He was released Tuesday. “I just stopped my breathing. I lowered it down as much as I possibly could. I didn’t move and was terrified,” he said. “I didn’t make any noise. I prayed for any god. I didn’t really care which god. I just prayed for a god that they won’t find me.” The family’s ordeal unfolded on group chat early Saturday morning, starting with the couple messaging that they had heard voices in Arabic, breaking of glass, and gunfire. Then they went silent for 20 minutes before Rotem Mathias responded: “Mom and dad r dead sorry. Call help.” For the next 10 hours, relatives including Deborah Mathias’ brother-in-law Eran Shani, his wife, and daughters supported Rotem. At one point, they managed to get a doctor to join the call to ask Rotem Mathias about his level of bleeding and to assess the situation. Two other daughters of the Mathias, 21-year-old Shir, and 19-year-old Shakked, were hiding separately in their own safe rooms in the kibbutz just minutes from their parents. They got a message from their mom that fighters were in the kibbutz and that they shouldn’t “open the door." “All we could hear were gunshots and people screaming and bombs going off, cars exploding,” Shir Mathias said, recalling how she hid for more than 12 hours before both sisters were rescued by soldiers. In Kfar Gaza, just three miles east of Gaza, another young Israeli couple hid their 10-month-old twin babies before Hamas operatives broke into their home and shot them both dead. Taking to X, Deputy Ambassador of Israel in Cyprus, Rotem Segev wrote, “Itay and Hadar Berdichevsky, 30 years old. They hid the ten-month-old twins in the shelter while terrorists broke into their home. They were brutally murdered after fighting fiercely with the terrorists.” The babies were left alone for over 12 hours until they were rescued unharmed by Israeli forces. According to the New York Post, they were later handed to their grandmother.
Families wait in agony for loved ones Noam Sagi, a psychotherapist who lives in London, believes his mother, Ada, who turns 75 next week, is among those taken hostage. He hasn’t heard from her since early Saturday morning when she called him from a panic room at Kibbutz Nir Oz, a communal settlement near the southeastern border with Gaza. Ada Sagi, the daughter of Holocaust survivors from Poland, was born in Israel in 1948. As a member of a kibbutz built on the ideals of equality and humanity, she learned Arabic and taught the language to others in southern Israel as a way to improve communication and build a better relationship with Palestinians living nearby, her son said. Sagi hopes his mother’s language skills will help her negotiate with the hostage takers. But she has severe allergies, and has recently had a hip replacement. He is desperately worried. “The only hope I have now is almost like for humanity to do something for me to see my mother again and for my son to see his grandmother again,” Sagi told The Associated Press. Nir Oz is also home to Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, a married father of two daughters who is awaiting the birth of his third child. Neighbors reported that he helped fight off the militants who stormed the kibbutz, but he hasn’t been heard from since, according to his father, Jonathan.
Israel-Hamas war The war began after Hamas militants stormed into Israel Saturday during a major Jewish holiday, killing people and abducting others. In response, Israeli warplanes have hammered the Gaza Strip, destroying buildings and sending Palestinian residents scrambling to find safety in the tiny, sealed-off territory. The war, which has claimed more than 2,500 lives on both sides, is expected to escalate. The death toll in Gaza rose to more than 1,350 killed, the Palestinian health ministry said. The Israeli military said more than 1,300 people, including 222 soldiers, have been killed in Israel, a staggering toll unseen since the 1973 war with Egypt and Syria that lasted weeks. Palestinians escaping airstrikes were spotted scurrying through the streets with their possessions while looking for a safe place to hide. Thousands of people have crammed into UN-run schools, while others are staying with friends, family, or even random strangers who have allowed them in. People sought to stock up on food before the shelves were cleared, so lines developed outside bakeries and grocery stores during the few hours they dared open. On Wednesday, Gaza’s sole power plant ran out of fuel and shut down, leaving only sporadic private generators to power the remaining lights. Hospitals might be destroyed by a lack of electricity, a senior official with the International Committee of the Red Cross said. “As Gaza loses power, hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk. Kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays can’t be taken,” said Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC’s regional director. “Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues.” Israeli energy minister Israel Katz said nothing would be allowed into Gaza until the captives were released. “Not a single electricity switch will be flipped on, not a single faucet will be turned on, and not a single fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages are returned home,” he tweeted. With inputs from The Associated Press