Harrowing stories from Israelis who survived Hamas
A day before Hamas’ unthinkable surprise attack on Israel, Adele Raemer was dreaming of her upcoming trip to the UK to visit her mother-in-law in England and explore the castles in Ireland.
Maya Parizer was excited to celebrate her “birthday month” and to kick things off with her fiancé at the Nova Music Festival.
Netta Atzili was looking forward to seeing a concert the following week.
But a day later, on Oct. 7, their lives were upended and altered forever when the bloodthirsty Iran-backed terrorists poured into Israel by land, sea and sky — burning, shooting, and slashing to death 1,400 Israelis and taking another 200 people hostage.
Raemer, 68, an American-Israeli who was born in New York but moved to Israel in 1973, spent 14 hours locked in her Kibbutz Nirim home’s armored safe-room – legally required in all houses within five miles of the Gaza border – as she and her family listened to Hamas fighters burn the town to the ground and take their neighbors hostage.
“My son at one point heard them saying, ‘Come here,’” she told The Post Thursday.
“And when I opened the door, I saw the slats at my window had been busted up. Which means when my son heard them … they had been trying to get into my house.”
Nearly half of Kibbutz Nirim, where Raemer’s husband is buried and where they raised their family, was burned to the ground.
The entire community has since been relocated to temporary housing.
How celebrities, schools, and businesses have reacted to Hamas’ terror attack against Israel
“I am now homeless. I cannot go back home. I do not physically have a home,” she said.
“I’m homeless, as are all the people in my community and many communities like Nirim.”
Atzili, 20, was sleeping in his apartment’s safe room – common practice in Kibbutz Nir-Oz, where residents live in constant fear of random Hamas shelling – when he was awoken by a chorus of sirens.
Springing from bed, he armed himself with a kitchen knife and barricaded himself inside the safe-room.
Four hours later, the terrorists entered his apartment and he threw himself against the safe-room door to keep them at bay.
“Apparently it was a suicidal move. I mean, there were cases where the terrorists shot through the door or blasted it down with grenades,” Atzili said.
Follow along with The Post’s live blog for the latest on Hamas’ attack on Israel
“Or they could just burn the house down.”
But he was lucky.
The terrorists eventually left him alone, and instead went about ransacking the apartment.
They stole his computer and left.
After hiding in the safe-room for 11 hours, he was finally rescued by his brother.
However, by then, their mother and father, Liet Beinin and Aviv Atzili, both 49, had vanished like hundreds of others.
Follow along with The Post’s coverage of Israel’s war with Hamas
They also discovered their family dog, a three-legged mutt whose Hebrew name translates to “Three-Quarters,” had been shot dead.
“The only reason I can think of that they would shoot her is because they wanted my parents to see it,” the grieving son said.
Parizer, 27, and her fiancé, Ron Alenziki, were partying with their friends in the early morning hours of October 7, when rockets came pouring out of the sky and the terrorists descended on the Nova Festival.
Israel-Hamas war: How we got here
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip over three decades after winning the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: Terrorist group Hamas wins a Palestinian legislative election.
2007: Hamas seizes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launches military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fired rockets into the town of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches the biggest attack on Israel in 50 years, in an early-morning ambush Oct. 7, firing thousands of rockets and sending dozens of militants into Israeli towns.
Terrorists killed more than 1,400 Israelis, wounded more than 4,200, and took at least 200 hostage.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to announce “We are at war,” and vowed Hamas would pay “a price it has never known.”
Gaza health officials — which are controlled by Hamas — report at least 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,500 injured since the war began.
As they fled they called the police but nobody answered.
They sent their parents panicked text messages telling them they loved them as bullets chased them — and eventually made it to a home where a family opened their safe-room door and let them in.
With three other families they hunkered in the small room for 23 hours before emerging the next day.
“They left people with no parents, left parents with no kids,” Parizer said.
Safely in America over two weeks later, the 27-year-old said “I still feel like I’m fighting for my life.”
During a visit to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to share her story with US senators, she was forced to enter the building through an underground tunnel when pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked their entrance.
“They’re saying, ‘But enough blood has been shattered on the other side, so now it’s okay!’” she said.
“There is no ‘But.’ No death should be saluted.”
“Each side has their narrative. And it’s all about compromise. It’s all about choosing life over choosing death. It’s all about ending the blood cycle that has been going on for the last 75 years.”
Read the full article Here
