15 HOURS! My Hero, My Cousin. Yochai Ben Gal.

Written by Nadav Ben Gal my cousin

15 hours

See the bald guy in the picture? This is my little brother. His name is Yochai and he is my hero.

My brother, together with my sister-in-law and my 2 nephews, survived an unbelievable hell last Saturday. They were locked in a safe room in their home in Kibbutz Be'eri for over 15 hours before rescued.

15 hours my brother was holding the door handle with one hand while holding a kitchen knife in the other one, while terrorists coming in and out from their home, trying to break into the room.

15 hours that Yahel, their older kid, had to be quiet.

15 hours that they were sitting in the dark, with no air, in a small room full of smoke from the fire the terrorist started to burn their neighbor’s house next door.

15 hours during which they tried to put Or, their 1.5 old daughter, to sleep, holding her in their arms, while hearing shootings and yelling in Arabic outside of their window.

15 hours that only ended when they were rescued, under heavy fire, to a safe place, while holding the kids strong, not allowing them to watch the horrors around them.

15 hours during which they see in the Kibbutz group chat that their friends are calling for help, but shortly after, they stop responding to messages.

15 hours that will last for their entire life.

The battle on the Kibbutz lasted for 48 hours. Over 110 members of the Kibbutz (15% of the community!) lost their life in this brutal massacre. Many more were kidnapped and tortured. They sacrificed their lives defending us, and now is our turn to help them recover.

I’ll put a link in comments to a fund that they started with a sole purpose of aiding in their recovery and rebuilding. If you are considering a donation but aren’t sure where to contribute – this is a great cause.

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