TEL AVIV, Israel (Reuters) – The last word that Anat Moshe Shoshany got from her grandmother was a text message saying that armed men were inside her house in Nir Oz kibbutz near Gaza, pushing their way through the safe room door.
The last she saw of her was a snatch of video on social media showing 72-year-old Adina Moshe, in a red top, forced on a motorcycle between two gunmen, being driven away.
When other relatives on the kibbutz got to the house, they found attackers from the Hamas militant group had killed Shoshany’s grandfather, David Moshe, as he fought to keep them out.
He was one of more than 1,300 people killed when Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip rampaged through Israeli towns on Saturday, according to figures from public broadcaster Kan. Scores of Israeli and foreign hostages were taken back to Gaza; Israel says it has identified 97 of them.
“My grandfather held the door with all his power … he held the door with all his powers, he is 75 years old,” Shoshany said, holding back tears at her house in Tel Aviv.
“Finally they succeeded to open the window. Through the window they shot at my grandfather while he still held the door.”
She assumes her grandmother was hiding but saw everything.
“She is sick. She has heart issues. She watched her husband die right in front of her. And right after they got her on (a)motorcycle and she had to hold the terrorist who just murdered her husband.
“They were together from over 50 years. They built the Kibbutz with their own hands.”
Shoshany showed pictures on her phone of her grandfather at his last birthday celebration, a video of the elderly couple with their grandchildren at Jewish New Year.
“The hardest part for me is that I believe she doesn’t know if her grandchildren are alive or dead or kidnapped too.
“I think the world must understand they didn’t came just to kill, they came to destroy, to humiliate, to murder innocent civilians, babies, mothers, elderly, just innocent people wanted to live peacefully in their own houses.”
(Writing by Andrew Heavens; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
