“Suddenly an angel appeared”: Israelis share stories of miraculous salvation during Hamas attacks

Rachel Adari – the name of this Israeli woman has already gone down in the history of the current round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Early on the morning of October 7, Hamas militants burst into her home in the southern Israeli town of Ofakim. The woman had no other weapons… except maternal care and cookies.

“I saw that they were angry. I asked if they were hungry and made them coffee and cookies,” Rahel told Israel’s Channel 12. According to her husband David, “She drove them crazy. She kept asking if they wanted anything.”

Her persistence and irresistible desire to feed someone made it possible to avoid a seemingly inevitable tragedy. Thus, they spent about 15 hours with the militants. And it is still unknown who was taken hostage by whom. While Rachel was talking to Hamas, the couple’s two sons (police officers) joined the liberation operation. Society recognized the woman as a national hero. In Ofakim, Rachel Adari’s house became something of a pilgrimage site for Israelis. Several people even came there with their own sweets.

The woman’s neighbors say they are not surprised by her heroism: “If there is one person in Ofakim who could charm even Hamas militants, it is Rachel. She told me: I fed them because I know that a hungry person is more dangerous than a recently fed one. She also knew that these young men believed they were going to die and probably missed their mothers. It turned out to be a good idea to become such a person.”

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The story of retired general Noam Tibon may someday form the basis of some exciting film. He was well known to the Israelis from his military career. He commanded the Israeli Defense Forces in the north of the country, and this year even appeared at pro-democracy protests.

On Saturday, Noam realized with horror that his son, journalist Amir Tibon, was stuck with his family in their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Immediately, the former general grabbed a pistol (the only weapon he had) and, together with his wife, rushed from Tel Aviv towards the south of the country.

Their trip was described in great detail in the Israeli press. First, Noam Tibon met young people fleeing in panic from the tragically famous music festival in Reim. They survived the Hamas attack and, fortunately, Noam met on their way, who decided to take the rescued people to the north. A completely different direction from his son.

A little later on the way, he met a group of soldiers, convincing one of them to go with him. The direction was taken again to Nahal Oz. However, on the way, the man came across a group of wounded soldiers. As a former general, Noam Tibon could not leave the fighters in danger. He loaded them into the car and drove them to safety, again in the opposite direction from where his son lived.

Finally, the path was overcome. Along with a handful of soldiers, Tibon eliminated several Hamas militants right outside the home of Amir’s son. He knocked on the window. His three-year-old granddaughter responded to the knock, saying in Hebrew: “Grandfather is here.” The family was saved.

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Noam Tibon was not the only retired general who performed a miracle and joined the fight without orders. Yair Golan was deputy chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces from 2014 to 2017. Until December 2022, he served as Deputy Minister of Economy and Industry of the country. He is a member of the left-wing social democratic party Meretz, which deals, among other things, with issues of a peaceful settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

As part of the current escalation, Golan has become famous for a number of heroic rescue operations. According to the Walla news agency, the father of one of the Israeli journalists wrote on social networks that the army and police were not taking any action to save his son, who lives in the south of the country. Seeing this recording, Golan found out the exact location of the journalist and headed there. The young man was saved.

Later, Yair Golan learned of three more young men hiding from Hamas militants near Kibbutz Reim, where a music festival was taking place. The families of those who escaped from hell had little hope. The father of one of the young people wrote on his social network page: the army is making no attempt to save these people.

Yair Golan carried out the rescue, prompting a highly admiring reaction from the father of one of the survivors: “Suddenly, out of nowhere, an angel arrives at the location of my son and his friends, calls my son, calls him by name, says: “Hello, this is the Major speaking.” Yair Golan, come to me.”

The rescued young man told his father that Golan had come to pick them up from there and promised to return them to their parents. And so it happened.

“This man, this hero, this angel came and saved them from this place, it’s just incredible. I have no words to thank and greet you, Yair Golan,” exclaimed the father of the rescued man.

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On Monday, a new name joined the pantheon of last weekend’s heroes: Inbal Rabin-Liberman. This 25-year-old girl is said to have saved the Nir Am community from a Hamas invasion.

Lieberman has headed security at the kibbutz since December 2022. When she heard explosions early Saturday morning, she quickly realized that the sounds were different from those she had heard before. This was clearly not an ordinary rocket attack on a settlement. The girl opened a weapons warehouse and began distributing them to a security team of 12 people.

A detachment of kibbutzniks was stationed at strategic positions throughout the settlement. They set up ambushes, and Inbal Lieberman herself changed the balance of forces depending on the situation. She personally eliminated 5 Hamas militants, the rest of the team neutralized a total of 20 militants in 4 hours of confrontation. Nir-Am, thanks to the actions of Inbal, turned into an impregnable fortress.

“It was amazing, my husband was part of the reserve unit that was working to prevent more casualties. They heard the shots and independently contacted other members of the reserve unit and Inbal. She decided not to wait and act quickly. The fact that they did it earlier prevented dozens of victims,” local resident Elit Paz emotionally shared in an interview with Israel Hayom.

The Maariv Daily reported that everyone on social media admired the young girl’s heroism and argued that she deserves the Israel Prize.

“When it’s all over, this woman will receive the Israel Prize. The story of her heroism is a story that will go down in Israeli traditions for many generations.”

A similar story happened in Ein HaBesor (a moshav located near the Gaza Strip). There, a handful of local defenders repelled a large number of armed militants, one moshav resident, Noam Gotliv, told the Times of Israel: “What happened to us was part vigilance, part miracle.”

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But one of the most dramatic moments occurred in the settlement of Yeted. According to the Daily Mail, Debbie Shaaron (a British woman with Israeli roots) fled with her family from the besieged settlement of Yeted across open fields past army forces in a firefight with Hamas, leaving her son to fight on the front line.

Shaaron stepped on the gas pedal, rushed past the tanks and dodged bullets. She and her family then hid in a shelter for more than 36 hours. Despite the fact that the woman was saved, she is now anxiously awaiting news from her 27-year-old son Zohar. He was mobilized on Sunday with his airborne unit.

Following the complete evacuation of the population, her home in Yeted is now among several settlements that have been declared a closed military zone. Dozens of community residents are still considered missing or listed as dead.

“I still can’t breathe, I can’t sleep, and for the first time I admit that I’m traumatized. My son is still serving and clearing the area of ​​what is left of the worst enemy that exists today.”

However, the woman does not lose hope that she will one day return to her home: “Leaving is not an option. It will take a long time to rebuild everything again. So many young children have suffered terrible mental trauma and there is work to be done, but I can’t imagine giving up this wonderful place. So many people died here… By leaving it, we are not respecting their memory.”