An elderly Israeli couple on Wednesday recounted the story of their abduction by Hamas and subsequent unexpected release before they went into the Gaza Strip.
Moshe and Diana Rosen told Israel’s Channel 12 the Hamas terrorist group assaulted their home Saturday in Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, where they lived for 50 years, the Times of Israel reported. They recounted they were woken Saturday morning by rocket alert sirens and went into their house’s shelter room. (RELATED: ‘Death Is A Blessing’: Father Reacts To News 8-Year-Old Daughter Was Killed And Not A Hostage In Gaza)
Elderly couple, abducted by Hamas, tell how they refused to be taken to Gaza https://t.co/SbB7iYd0PQ . Click to read ⬇️
— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) October 12, 2023
The couple was then notified their community had been breached by terrorists, and they heard a knocking on their front door. “I said to Diana, ‘They are inside the home; they are here,'” Moshe told the local outlet, according to the Times of Israel. The terrorists reportedly managed to break into their house and then tried to enter the shelter room.
“[T]hey shot the lock and the door opened,” Moshe continued. “We were injured in our hands when we were hit by a volley of bullets as we tried to stop them coming in.”
Five terrorists abducted the couple and took them to breached border fence near the Gaza Strip, according to the Times of Israel. “They told us to be quiet and indicated with a hand to the throat that if we speak it will be the end of us,” Diana said. The couple, however, allegedly refused demands by their captors to go any further and told them they instead needed to go to the hospital for their wounds.
“We dared to tell the terrorists that we simply aren’t going to Gaza,” Moshe told Channel 12. “We told them we are injured, bleeding, and need to go to a hospital. Of course, their leader didn’t accept that. I said to him [in English] ‘ambulance, hospital,’ and he said ‘Gaza.’”
The tactic worked after a standoff and their captors suddenly told them they could go, according to the Times of Israel.
“We turned around and walked. During those long moments, we feared they would shoot us. We didn’t turn around to see what he was doing,” Moshe said.
It reportedly took the elderly couple a day to reach a hospital in Jerusalem, where they are receiving treatment for injuries to their hands.
More than 1,300 Israelis have been killed, the Times reported, and thousands more wounded following Hamas’ invasion of southern Israel early Saturday. The group, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union, has also taken over 100 people hostage.