Shabi: Hashem saved us on Oct 7… and zecuth of Sukkah I made first time

The following was translated from Hebrew.

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That morning of Simchat Torah, Shabi started it with me like most of the residents of the Gaza Envelope with a series of loud alarms and explosions. “Immediately we understood that we were at war. The intensity of the barrages left no doubt that we were in an event on an unusual scale. Something we had never experienced before. However, in the first few minutes we did not understand what was happening, but we could not miss the fact that missiles began to fall in our vicinity.”

Shabi and his family locked themselves in the MAMAD (safe room) at first, but it didn’t take long until he discovered to his dismay that there were shouts in Arabic inside the house. “The feeling is of helplessness,” he describes. “We didn’t understand what we could do with this situation. It was also the moment when we realized that the door of the MAMAD could not be locked. The meaning already seemed clear to me in those moments, but I didn’t even try to imagine it.

Surprisingly the terrorists were in no hurry. “They first went around inside the house, destroying, breaking and looting everything they came across. In the meantime we realized that a real disaster was taking place outside. People were murdered, others were kidnapped, and a feeling of confusion and helplessness prevailed everywhere.

“The first hours were also the scariest, especially the beginning of their breaking into our house. The fear was constant:
what are they going to do to us and how will they hurt us? The worst things went through our minds. When they approached the MAMAD, they first shot the pet that was in the house. After that they planned to come to us. I hurried to hold the door of the MAMAD, as I shout ‘Shema Israel’ over and over again, surely these are my last moments.

“But by great luck, after only a few minutes of fighting for the MAMAD handle, they gave up and retreated. At this point the terrorists left the house intact, meaning: almost intact. They looted, blew up, destroyed and broke, but didn’t set it on fire yet. It still had valuables that could be taken at those moments, and maybe that’s what saved our lives.

“The sigh of relief that was heard from me the moment the terrorists left the handle of the MAMAD and moved away, quickly ended with heavy apprehension. We heard them when they came back and broke the acoustic ceiling above the MAMAD, then they threw a burning tire there which through the vent of the MAMAD transferred smoke and heavy soot to us. Within two minutes we could no longer breathe. We began to suffocate, and then a heartbreaking dilemma began: should we go out and surrender? Or die of suffocation? Do you try to escape? And if so, is it from the door or the window?

“Finally, we made a decision in a split second: to go out the door and surrender to the terrorists. This is the only way, we convinced ourselves, that we would be saved. The terrorists would see us going out with our two small children, and they would realize that we are not fighters, and thus they might kidnap us to the Gaza Strip and we would be saved from death, hoping to be released in a future hostage deal between Israel to Hamas.

“We made a decision and approached the door of the MAMAD with trembling hands. We tried to open it but then it became clear to us that it was impossible. My fight with the terrorists along with the fire that broke out in the place caused that the handle of the MAMAD was damaged in a way that made it impossible to open it.

“The second option left before us is exiting through the window, which we were more afraid of. We believed that exiting through the window is less safe because we are seen as fleeing and then we might be shot immediately. But there was no other choice.

“So we left through the window.”

The yard is filled with terrorists.

Shaabi stops with me for a moment. It is not easy for him to remember those moments, but it is important for him to tell the story in order to strengthen Jews in their faith.

He takes a long breath and continues.

“We open the window and discover a sight we never believed we would ever see. Be’eri was occupied by Hamas. Terrorists were seen in every corner, marching and trampling our fields without any fear. Smoke rose from everywhere, and gunfire was heard from all sides. And yes, there were also screams from the residents of Be’eri Unfortunately they are not alive today.

“But in those moments we thought less about the sight of our eyes and the sound of our ears, but I was all focused on saving myself and my family.

“Fortunately when we opened the window we discovered that the terrorists were not in the yard. I know that many times after they set fire to the apartment they rushed to wait outside the window for the fleeing tenants, not this time.

“We jumped out, and jumped under the nearby palm tree, hiding among its branches. The palm tree was thinned with branches after this year I decided for the first time in my life to build a Sukkah. I wanted my children to see Judaism and get to know it closely. I wanted them to ask the right questions and for me to answer them. Now we were under the tree with which I used the mitzvah of Sukkah. I have no doubt that G-d himself sheltered me in those moments.”

And there was another especially scary moment. “Immediately after we positioned ourselves under the palm tree, I realized that we left the window open. If terrorists pass by and see the window open, they will rush to search the yard. I decided to get out of the protected hiding place. I jumped to the window and closed it from the outside as I quickly returned to my hiding place.

“Just two minutes later, the yard was filled with terrorists. At first they were alone. A few minutes later, dozens (!) of terrorists were already walking through the yard.

“The terrorists passed right next to us. We were surrounded on all sides. They passed less than a meter by me, on the path of the garden. For five whole hours we lay there like that, unable to move, in great fear. My children, by the grace of heaven [G-d – ed.], kept completely quiet. Without that, the terrorists They would have boarded us in an instant.

“All this time we hear how our neighbors are being murdered, while we are frozen in place, not knowing what to think in those moments.”

‘Understanding,’ under the tree.

“At a certain point I realize that they can’t see me. More than once I was sure that I was exposed, I see the terrorist passing right by me, our eyes cross and he continues on. It happened more than once and twice. And today I don’t understand how it happened, it’s not but the Divine providence, I will understand later.”

Did you also see the looters at those hours?

“Definitely. The terrorists were in command of the incident, while the looters were people in civilian clothes, some of whom were also armed. There was also a mother with her eight-year-old son who arrived at the scene. At one point, she turned to talk to one of the Nukhba terrorists – it turned out to be a family of parents and a child who went out together to loot and kill the Jews…”.

And while Itay was hiding under the tree, his wife began to think in a different direction. “The whole time my wife tried to convince me to leave the bush. But I preferred to stay in place. Here we are protected, I told her and we saw that it was true as time passed.

“But at 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon we started to suffocate again. The flames from the house continued to spread and with them the nearby smoke that reached us that we were so close. We realized that we had to change location, but we were afraid of being exposed. My wife caught a glimpse of a bucket in the yard, and the [fact that the] looters who had already left allowed me to jump to the bucket. I filled the bucket with water from the hose in the yard, we drank a little of it, and soaked our clothes so that we could breathe fresher air.

“When I crawled to get the bucket, I discovered that the terrorists were concentrating on a house that stood a hundred meters from us and all the houses in that area were on fire. I realized that we had the option of escaping in the opposite direction. After an hour of waiting since I brought the bucket, we could no longer breathe and indeed left to escape in that direction.

“I called my family to come with me towards the fence of the kibbutz, outside the neighborhood, to an area where there are many bushes. I ran first and called my wife to follow me. But she got confused and started running away in the opposite direction – to the one where the terrorists were (!). I called her quietly and she realized that she had been exposed, was shocked and unable to continue. I had no choice but to come. Unfortunately, my wife, because of the shock that surrounded her, I still did not manage to move towards the fence. The terrorists have already heard my scream…

“The result was an opening fire at us. The shooting was dense. But the four of us managed to escape and reached the grove by Be’eri’s fence. It felt like a safer place to us, because when we ran there we only saw the outside of the trees, and realized that you couldn’t see into the wood.

“We went into the thicket of trees, we ‘settled’ in them. It was four in the afternoon. We didn’t know what to think anymore, but we felt very well – the change for the better in our situation. The air was clean and we could already move and not continue hiding without moving at all.”

“I lay down on the ground and covered myself with tree trunks under which I could hide. During the long wait there I even fell asleep. We were desperate, we were very cold and we ate and drank almost nothing during the day.”

Talks beyond the thicket.

“During all that time the bullets were still whistling above us, some of them reached the trees we were in, all kinds of stray bullets hit the surroundings. More than once the ground was also shaken by rockets that fell not far from us.

“After several hours, I came out of the bush for a moment, took a look. Then I saw the lights of a military jeep on our left. I believed that they were Hamas terrorists and immediately threw myself into the thicket again. But the occupants of the jeep had already noticed us. A few minutes passed and I saw that they were flashing towards us With flashlights. Then I started hearing whispers, and they were the best whispers I’ve ever heard: they were in Hebrew.
“I didn’t held myself back anymore and shouted: ‘Soldier’!
“‘Who is this?’, I asked in response.
“‘We are here, an Israeli family,'” I answered.

“We went out towards them and they immediately hugged me warmly and assured me that now they are here and will accompany us. They were shocked by the sight of their eyes and were very excited to see a whole family alive after everything they had seen. It turns out that these were the fighters of the 13th Fleet. They turned out of the thicket when at first I thought they were soldiers by myself, but after they realized it was an Israeli family, they lowered their weapons and all came out of the thicket. I discovered a force of dozens of soldiers.

“After a short conversation with them, it became clear to me that they had just gotten off a helicopter that they had brought to help, and were on their way to another place. I stopped them and told them that they should enter Be’eri and not continue to that point. ‘There is a real massacre here,’ I explained to them the situation and pointed to the direction where the terrorists were. They responded immediately of course and changed their original plan, while they rescued me and my family from the scene using a military jeep.

“I had a series of miracles,” concludes Shabi. “I was saved time and time again from certain death. I still remember the shock of the sights I saw when I was rescued, the many bodies. I remembered in those moments the many miracles I had during that day.

“Looking back, after this whole day was over and I was with myself and I started reflecting/doing all these calculations, and I realized with a sense that I had really had a miracle, or more precisely – a sequence of miracles. Where logic ends, faith begins, as you know. In my case there were so many cases which run out of logic. One of the most prominent ones was the fact that the door didn’t open. I can only imagine what would have happened if the door had opened. I could have been killed on the spot or kidnapped now.

Shabi continues:

And how is it that the four-year-old children were silent throughout all these long hours? And how is it that none of the dozens of terrorists recognized us hiding?
And how is it that they shot at us and none of us were hit?
The answer to all these questions, and to many other questions that surround me since that day, is only faith. Without faith I also don’t know how I would have been able to continue since then.

Source: Mercaz haInyanim (‘Center of Affairs’).