"The angels arrived, they saved our lives." This statement became etched in the memories of four Border Police officers from the IDF who acting without any orders, rushed to the scene and successfully rescued many.
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Superintendent Shifra Buchris (45), a devout woman and a mother of ten, serves as the commander of the reconnaissance unit in the Border Police Southern Brigade. Accompanied by her deputy, Chief Inspector Ram Amrani, Sgt. First Class Baruch Avischal, and Sergeant Major Yoniv Cohen Dahar, they courageously drove in two private, non-armored vehicles toward the area under attack. Despite being under constant gunfire, they worked for 12 hours to evacuate the wounded and stranded to save as many people as possible from the party.
"I would have wanted to eliminate the terrorists because I am a fighter at heart," said Buchris. "but, within that brutal battleground, we collectively decided that our foremost priority was to save the lives of the wounded. I am uncertain if this is linked to the fact that I am a mother of ten children, but one thing I knew for sure: both I and the fighters by my side were determined to reunite as many children as possible with their families at home," she said.
"We found young people who were feigning death, and that clever decision ultimately saved their lives. We swiftly rescued them, loading as many as we could into two vehicles, even utilizing the trunk space, and raced towards the Orim intersection, where the ambulance point was located. We operated on autopilot, determined not to allow even the bodies, including those of the policemen whom we personally knew, to impede or delay us."
Chief Inspector Amrani recounted the harrowing scene, saying, "The sight of hundreds of dead young men with a bullet in their foreheads was proof of the terrorists' killing. The mind cannot comprehend the piles of corpses." The team of fighters worked tirelessly from morning until night, and amidst the bushes, they also discovered 11 live terrorists whom they promptly handcuffed and handed over to the army. Throughout this entire operation, they remained a moving target for the terrorists, with bullets whizzing overhead constantly. One of them expressed, "In my heart, I had already bid farewell to my wife and children, knowing that at some point, a bullet would end my life."
Despite all of it, they said: "We're no heroes. We did our job. We have the responsibility of protecting civilians, even if it means sacrificing ourselves."