Holocaust survivor escapes Hamas attack when they raided her home
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Jerusalem: An elderly woman who had survived Hitler’s persecution of Jews surprisingly survived Hamas attack days before, staying in her home’s safe room.
On October 7, the incidents reminiscent of Holocaust flashed before 87-year-old Ruth Haran’s eyes first time since the end of World War Two.
Hamas gunmen on a killing rampage burst into her home in the kibbutz of Beeri in southern Israel, according to Reuters.
They forced her into the house’s safe room where she spent several hours while the violence played out in and around the house.
When Haran eventually emerged, she found ten of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren missing.
Haran has no choice but believe that they were taken away by militants to Gaza, where they are holding Israelis hostages.
In an interview on Israeli Channel 12 she appealed to the authorities to do everything to free them.
Reuters quoted the wife of one of Haran’s grandchildren saying that the family was amazed at grandma’s survival.
‘When we got the phone call on Sunday (Oct. 8) that she's in Netivot, we were shocked and we were just amazed by her strength and by her ability,’ the wife, Annalee Milstein was quoted as saying in her home in Tel Aviv.
Haran, a Romanian-born Jew, moved to Israel as a child surviving Nazi persecution.
For the first time since those horrible days, she found something wrong on October 7 as she was relaxing in her home in the morning.
When she called her son Avshalom and other family members there was no answer.
Militants stormed into the house ordering her into the panic room, which is reportedly common in homes in Southern Israel as a precaution against missile attacks.
Later she shockingly learnt that members of three generations of her family along with some visiting relatives were missing.
The family believes that the other members were included in the 199 Israelis that Hamas has taken hostage during the surprise attack.
Hamas has threatened to kill hostages if Israel were to attack civilians in Gaza.
