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"I was sleeping when..." - Narrative of a survivor of the Hamas attack in southern Israel

2023-10-11 20:30:13Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
"I was sleeping when..." - Narrative of a survivor of the Hamas attack
Israeli soldier

As authorities in Israel grapple with the aftermath of Saturday's attack by Hamas militants on Israeli communities in the country's south, a survivor of the attack shared with VOA his family's experience as they took shelter from rockets and the shooting of militants who had penetrated into Israel from the Gaza Strip.

Shay Golani was sleeping when he was awakened at dawn on Saturday by the alarm of the phone app that warns residents of Israel about rocket attacks. He lives in southern Israel, bordering Gaza, a territory controlled by the Hamas group. Israeli settlements are surrounded by security fences, and sirens warning of the danger from rockets are not uncommon. But for the residents of Zikim, a settlement by the sea, shelter in the bunker room - a testament to the long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians - this time would not be enough.

"Ten seconds after the alarm, we heard the sound of rockets entering Israel. Apart from them, we heard a lot of gunshots and we are not used to hearing them during such an attack. We are always attacked with rockets, but not like this. Many rockets entered our settlement. Cell phones were cut off, we had no access and we couldn't understand what was happening outside. There was a lot of shooting and now I understand that they (Hamas militants) were trying to break through the sea, not only by land, but they were repulsed by the Israeli navy. A car with terrorists tried to enter our neighborhood," says Mr. Golani.

The attack by the militant group Hamas began early Saturday with the launch of about 2,000 rockets and the penetration of the fortification that separates Gaza from Israel. Thousands of armed militants stormed Israeli settlements, killing and abducting entire families, the elderly, children and youth who were celebrating at a nearby music festival. Five days after the Hamas attack, Israeli authorities report 1,200 Israeli civilians killed, including initial reports from Israel of 40 babies found in the Kfar Aza settlement. Meanwhile, Israel has declared a state of war and launched incessant airstrikes on Gaza, a densely populated Palestinian enclave that now reports 1,055 dead, including families and children.

On the day of the attack, upon hearing the alarm, Shay Golani took shelter together with the two 3-year-old twins and his wife, in the bunker room of the house.

"A big bomb fell near the house, shaking the whole thing. After 10-15 minutes, I heard voices coming from outside the vault. There we have no window to see what was happening outside. The window is closed with iron and no one can open it from outside. We don't know what happened there. After a while, I tried to get out to see what was going on. I saw that the door of the house was open and went to my knees to close it because I didn't want to be seen from outside. I closed it and went back to the vault. I held the doorknob for 20 minutes so no one could open it," he says.

Mr. Golani says that he and his family were lucky.

"In our settlement, we have a special unit made up of the residents themselves, ordinary citizens, Israeli citizens equipped with weapons. They have kept us alive. Militants tried to fire RPG rockets into our settlement and penetrate inside by car. But, with great luck, the patrol managed to repel them. We were not allowed to leave the vault until 8:00 p.m., about 14 hours after the attack began. Then we took all the things we could gather and left the house,” he says.

He says that since he left, he has realized the damage caused by the Hamas attack on his residence. But, he says, compared to other communities along the Gaza Strip, where armed militants had penetrated, the residents of Zikim have managed to escape.

"They did not fight with soldiers. Hamas is the same as ISIS. They have no mercy. They are killers. They kidnapped babies. They killed the parents in front of the children. The horror happened in Israel," said Mr. Golani.

This is the sixth time that Mr. Golani leaves his home. Now sheltered in another settlement in the interior of Israel with members of his community, he says he is not sure if he will ever return to his home.

“I lived in the Gaza Strip for six years and we faced Hamas; in the past we have been attacked several times and we have responded several times, but not on this scale. It's crazy. They killed our children and families. Every day I hear about an acquaintance killed, or whose fate is unknown. And I think the Israeli government has not done enough to protect us. I don't think we are safe to go home…,” he says.

He finds it impossible to predict the future after the scale of Saturday's attack.

"There are good people in Gaza, people who come to Israel to work and they can be good neighbors. But they too are suffering from the Hamas regime. Hamas takes a lot of money from many countries of the world and invests it to get better rockets, build tunnels to get into Israel and kill people, not to support the people of Gaza,” says Mr. Golani. /VOA


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