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When the rockets from Gaza began flying over his village in southern Israel at daybreak on Saturday, Amir Tibon was not overly alarmed.
Mr. Tibon and his neighbors in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, a village that stands just a few hundred yards from the Gaza Strip, have grow to be accustomed to frequent rocket fireplace from militants in Gaza. Bomb shelters are put in in each house, and residents are used to dashing into them each few weeks.
However quickly after Mr. Tibon, 35, took shelter on Saturday together with his spouse and two younger daughters, he knew one thing was very completely different about this assault.
The sound of gunfire.
Then got here a morbid realization.
“There have been terrorists contained in the kibbutz, inside our neighborhood and — sooner or later — outdoors our window,” Mr. Tibon recalled in a telephone interview on Sunday morning. “We might hear them speak. We might hear them run. We might hear them taking pictures their weapons at our home, at our home windows.”
Palestinian militants had someway crossed into Israel and had overrun the village.
On the village WhatsApp group, neighbors have been posting frantic messages. “Individuals have been saying, ‘They’re in my home, they’re attempting to interrupt into the protected room!’” recalled Mr. Tibon, a distinguished journalist.
Messages from fellow reporters revealed much more terrifying information. They mentioned that Hamas, a militant group that controls Gaza, had infiltrated scores of Israeli border cities and that it could take time for the Israeli Military to achieve the village.
Then got here an unlikely glimmer of hope.
Mr. Tibon’s dad and mom, who dwell in Tel Aviv, messaged to say they have been on the way in which to rescue the household.
Wearing civilian garments and armed solely together with his pistol, Mr. Tibon’s father, Noam, had persuaded a gaggle of Israeli commandos to let him be a part of them as they tried to regain management of Kibbutz Nahal Oz.
Within the early afternoon, the youthful Mr. Tibon heard renewed gunfire. Israeli troopers had entered the village, accompanied by his father, and have been starting to drive the Palestinians out.
An hour later, there was a bang on the wall of their bomb shelter, Mr. Tibon mentioned.
“And we heard my father say, ‘I’m right here.’”
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