Lotus Lahav woke up at 6.30am on 7 October last year to the sound of sirens. She thought it was another missile attack on her kibbutz of Nir Oz.
Unperturbed, she and her mother made their way to the safe room in the house. But this was no air raid. October 7 Hamas attack victims retells story “All we could hear was gunfire and grenades,” she told journalists at the Great Park Synagogue in Houghton, Johannesburg, yesterday.
Their cellphones started vibrating. Other members of the 400-strong kibbutz were reporting how they were being attacked. Soon the messages would change to urgent pleas on how to stop the bleeding and then to find out if others were alive.
ALSO READ: Israel marks first anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack Lahav and her mother moved to secure the door to the safe room. They didn’t know how to because they never locked doors at Nir Oz. “My mother’s sibling sent a message saying he had made an improvised lock for his door with two brooms, but this was her workroom, there were no brooms,” Lahav said.
Instead, they fashioned a lock by tying a vacuum cleaner and the oar of a boat to the door handle. Then they switched off the light and hid under the table holding each other’s hands as the attackers edged ever closer. Terror as Hamas attackers edged closer At 9am, they reached Lahav’s house.
“About seven big men entered the house, shooting and shouting. When they got to the door, I thought we didn’t have a chance.” She turned to her mothe.
