Two young Israeli women spent around 36 hours huddled in their bomb shelter, helpless as Hamas terrorists marched through Sderot, gunning down civilians and police.
The missile siren’s eerie wail woke Sabina Elayev early Saturday morning in Sderot, a small Israeli town about a mile from Gaza. She thought the sound was a dream. Instead, it was the beginning of a nightmare that would force her to shelter for nearly two days as gunmen opened fire on her neighbors outside.
“Whole families were disappeared, and during this whole time, you just sit in the shelter waiting for someone to tell you it’s over, and it’s not over,” Elayev, 31, told Fox News. “Every gunshot … it’s a person killed, murdered, butchered.”WOMAN TRAPPED IN BOMB SHELTER FOR 36 HOURS AS HAMAS ATTACKED HER HOMETOWN:
Sderot was one of the first cities targeted by Hamas terrorists as they launched their attack on Israel. Men rolled into the city in pickup trucks, at least one of which carried a mounted machine gun, The New York Times reported. They shot residents in their cars, on motorcycles and at a bus stop. At least 20 civilians were killed, according to the Times.
Elayev, who was born and raised in Sderot, was confused when she heard the sirens. Although the town of about 30,000 is frequently targeted by rockets, she hadn’t heard the warning sound recently. Once she made sense of the noise, she ran to wake up her niece, knowing that it takes between 10 and 15 seconds from the time sirens blare until a rocket hits or is taken out by Israel’s Iron Dome.
By the time she reached her niece, Elayev said she could already hear multiple rockets in the sky.
The two women raced to Elayev’s bomb shelter, hands held over their heads defensively. They expected to stay inside for a few minutes like in the past.
“Then we started to hear gunshots,” said Elayev, who served more than 10 years in the Israel Defense Forces but recently started a new career in digital marketing.
