A resident of Nirim on the Israel-Gaza border shot and killed a terrorist who had entered his home on Saturday while his two daughters were hiding in the shelter. In other communities, residents said terrorists walked freely from one home to the next, killing the occupants for over two hours before any security forces arrived. "He sent me a picture and said 'I got one,'" his mother said.
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She said the body was just lying inside their house for seven hours until forces arrived. Fighting was still ongoing in some of the communities, late on Saturday, while forces battled with terror squads holding hostages.
"I got up in the morning to smoke a cigarette. It was 6:15 a.m. Dawn had barely broken. Suddenly I saw a trail of light in the sky and that's how this absurd scenario began. Little by little the horrible picture became clearer," Nava Anker, who is a member of Kibbutz Nirim told Ynet. She said her son also lives in Nirim with his three daughters. "Only later did we realize that we were surrounded by terrorists. We heard small arms fire. The IDF forces arrived after seven hours or so."
She said she and her husband had been inside their shelter for eight hours without food and that was hard on young and old. " At some point, I decided to clown around and sent videos to my grandchildren to make them laugh and ease some of the tension," she said.
Grandmother posts clips from her shelter
to ease tensions
"There is a terrible uncertainty and fear that takes over the whole body. A feeling that the army has fallen asleep while on duty and has forgotten its role." Yishai Shimon, a father of four, also from Moshav Takuma, said that since Saturday morning they have been besieged in their home. "There is a constant noise of gunfire. Everything smells of burning," he said.