9.18 The Heroes who Fought Back Against the Gaza Invasion
On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel from Gaza and turned southern Israel into hell. They murdered entire communities of Israelis. It wasn't until they had murdered 1400 people that they returned to Gaza. Hamas knew that Israel would send soldiers after them. Hamas also knew that if Israel did a lot of those soldiers would die because Hamas had turned Gaza into a giant trap. They had dug hundreds of miles of tunnels from which they could emerge and surround Israeli soldiers and then after killing them safely retreat underground. Every Israeli soldier who went into Gaza knew they might never come back.
Melanie Phillips gave a speech at the Freedom's Center Restoration Weekend about the heroism in Israel that day. She said:
When the attack of October 7 was in progress and Israelis heard about it many of them showed great heroism and headed toward the attackers. As soon as the attack started, people, young people leapt into their cars and rushed down to defend the border and start killing Hamas... They didn’t wait to be told. They didn’t wait to be called up. They just knew that this is the moment we are called upon to defend our country and to defend the Jewish people. And off they went.
Melanie spoke about a friend who said that her granddaughter was about to be married on the Tuesday after the terrible attack on Simha Torah and the wedding was postponed. Melanie said:
The boyfriend, the husband to be, as soon as the sirens went off on that terrible day, he rushed down south. He knew that friends of his were in one of the kibbutzim on that border. He got his gun. He rushed down south and he met there at the kibbutz, a scene of indescribable carnage. And he also met Hamas terrorists roaming around, still murdering people. He killed a very large number of terrorists that day, until he himself was himself was wounded and apparently he collapsed. He was simply exhausted and he was shot. He collapsed into a ditch somewhere and the IDF eventually found him. They thought he was a terrorist and they prepared to shoot him. And then someone said he’s wearing Tzitzit and he was not shot. He was rescued and put into immediate counseling, Immediate counseling because of the trauma of what he had seen.
One of the heroes that day was a father who drove into hell that day to rescue his daughter. The video below is about this. The father at the end of the video says he suspects treason because the Israeli military and the Israeli police should have been there sooner. Since this video was made it has become clear that higher ups in the Mossad knew about Hamas's invasion plan but didn't think Hamas could pull it off and so didn't warn the Israeli government. An Israeli intelligence analyst warned her bosses in the Mossad that Hamas's capabilities were a lot greater than they thought and that they could pull it off and were serious about doing so, but the Mossad leadership wouldn't listen to her.
In the video the father mentions safe rooms Those are rooms that are reinforced to offer protection against rocket attacks. Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad are terrorist organizations that have been firing rockets into Israel long before October 7. As a result Israel has built many underground shelters. In addition a reinforced security room that protects people from rockets is required in all new buildings by Israeli law. Underground shelters are safer than safe rooms but when the warning time is too short for residents to reach a shelter, people may be better off going to their safe room. Although shelters are necessary it can be a depressing and frightening to look at them because they are a reminder of the danger of rockets. In the city of Holon which is close to the Gaza border, an artist, Rinat Luk Elhaik, with the help of the Culture and Arts Department of Holon, painted the shelters with bright cheery colors and the themes of childrens books about mutual respect, acceptance of differences, brotherhood, kindness and helping others. Here is a picture of one of those shelters.
Here is the video about Victor, the father who drove into hell to rescue his daughter.
The video below is about another hero who kept driving back into hell to save people from Hamas.
There is an Israeli show called the Quad in which members were asked to choose their hero of the week. Here is a short clip about one of those chosen who unfortunately died in Gaza.
The New York Post tells the story of Tali Hadad, a 49-year-old mother of six and a kindergarten teacher whose days would normally be spent teaching basic reading, math and social skills to 5-year-olds. According to the Post:
As Hamas launched its assault at 6:45 a.m., she awoke to the sound of sirens and gunfire in her hometown of Ofakim, a small, working-class city in southern Israel 15 miles from the border with Gaza. Her son, Itamar, a soldier in officer training, was home on leave for the weekend. As the sounds of gunfire grew closer, he grabbed his rifle, fully aware that there was fighting just outside their door. Without hesitation, he ran toward the terrorists.
Tali, still in her pajamas, quickly slipped on running shoes and chased after him, her instincts as a mother taking over. "I ran toward the playground," Hadad told Fox News Digital. "I hid behind a wall and saw a line of terrorists walking with rifles, heading in the direction where my son had gone." Moments later, she heard gunshots. "I knew Itamar was in the middle of it. I waited, hoping he would come out, but he didn’t. So, I ran toward him."..Then, she saw Itamar. He had been shot multiple times – in the stomach, leg and thigh. Two of his comrades lay dead on the ground beside him. "He looked at me and said, ‘Mom, what are you doing here?’ I told him, ‘You’re hurt, I’m going to take you to the hospital,’" she recalled. With gunfire still echoing around her, Hadad sprinted back to her house, jumped into the family car and drove straight back to her son. "They put Itamar in the car, along with more of the wounded, and I drove as fast as I could, 120 kilometers per hour, to the Magen David Adom station (Israel's national emergency medical service) at the entrance to the city," she said. "I knew if I drove slowly, the terrorists would shoot me." After handing Itamar over to the paramedics, she made a fateful decision. "I told him, ‘Mom isn’t coming with you. You’ll go in the ambulance, I’ll join you later. I have to go back and help the others.’"
I've included links to more stories of heroism on October 7, on another page of this web site.
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