An Israeli mother broke down in tears as she told how she and her daughters escaped capture by Hamas but her husband and son were taken hostage.
Batsheva Yehalomi told Sky News she and her family woke at around 6.30am on 7 October to the sound of “gunshots outside the house” and “many rockets”.
She and her husband Ohad along with their three children – a 12-year-old son, a 10-year-old daughter and an 18-month-old baby girl – ran to their safe room.
Mrs Yehalomi told Sky’s Kay Burley: “We went into the safe room and we waited there. Then we understood something was very different.
“We heard gunshots outside of the house – on the windows and the walls. We heard people shouting ‘Allah Akbar’ in Arabic. We smelt fire and smoke – it was very, very scary.”
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Batsheva Yehalomi and her husband Ohad, with their 12-year-old son and daughter aged 10
More than 200 people were taken hostage by Hamas into Gaza during the initial attacks on 7 October.
They are thought to be inside the network of underground tunnels Hamas has built under the territory.
So far, one hostage has been freed by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and four have been released.
After two hours in the safe room, Ms Yehalomi’s husband left to see what was happening.
“He went out. He had a small gun and he waited,” she recalled.
“At about 10am, the terrorist bombed the house – and they shot the door and they shot my husband.
“They opened the door to the safe room and my and my three children were sitting together. They started shouting at us, pointing at us with their guns and talking in Arabic. But they said ‘come, come’ in English.
“They wanted to take us into Gaza, so we went out of the safe room and we saw my husband sitting on the floor, injured, bleeding, but he was talking to us.
“He told us he loves us and that we should go with them.”
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Mrs Yehalomi tried to put her baby girl in her husband’s arms in the hope they wouldn’t take her – but they did, she said.
Through tears, she described how she and her children were placed on motorcycles with men from Hamas.
When her baby started to cry, she was passed her by one of the men – leaving her, her daughter and the baby on one bike – and her 12-year-old son Eitan alone with a man on the other.
Through tears, she said: “We started driving through Gaza. We saw lots of terrorists. We saw the kibbutz burning – everything was burning.”
Batsheva Yeh