Israeli woman Rachel Edri served tea and Moroccan cookies to Hamas militants, who barged into her living room brandishing guns and grenades. But, that was only a ruse. She was holding them off till police stormed in and killed the attackers.
The 65-year-old Edri, who met US President Joe Biden on Wednesday (October 18), has now become something of a folk hero in her country. Biden, who is visiting Israel amid its war with Hamas, applauded her for her quick wit and courage in the face of imminent threat to her life.
Recounting her ordeal, she said, “One of the terrorists said to me: ‘You remind me of my mother’. I told him, ‘I am really like your mother. I will help you, I will take care of you. What do you need?'” Edri told Ynet.
After an air-raid siren early in the morning, Edri had returned from a bomb shelter in her hometown of Ofakim to find a band of Hamas militants in her living room. As gunfire raged outside, her home witnessed a 20-hour tete-a-tete between hospitality and brutality. She and her husband David were trapped inside for 17 hours until their son Eviatar, who is a local policeman, was able to rescue them.
She was one of several Israelis invited to meet with Biden during his whirlwind visit to Israel. She beamed and hugged the president, who thanked her for defending her country.
‘Forgot for a moment they were terrorists’
Edri said she had conversations with the militants and, at one point, even forgot they were “terrorists”. One of them even struck her across the face with the butt of his gun, but she soothed him. She then served the militants canned pineapple, tea and her signature Moroccan cookies. She sang them Arabic songs, and they replied with Hebrew ones. She offered the men Coke Zero — when they said they preferred Coca Cola, she obliged.
“After they drank and ate, they became much calmer,” Edri told Ynet. “I started having conversations, and at one point I even forgot for a moment that they were terrorists.”
Eviatar, meanwhile, gave the rescue team a sketch of the house, helping them surprise the militants and fatally shoot them. With the house heavily damaged, Edri has now been relocated to a hotel in central Israel.
‘Learned to survive like street cats’
The horrifying ordeal aside, Edri is also being touted online and in national media as the consummate Jewish mother, a play on the stereotype of a woman who overfeeds guests. Israelis have also compared her to the biblical character of Yael, who slays an evil general by offering him food before killing him in his sleep.
The militants who entered Ofakim killed at least 48 residents, but a group of civilians armed with pistols fought back. “They fought like lions here,” said Yoni Shalem, a man who lives down the street from Edri, describing the bravery of his neighbours.
“Not the policemen, not the army — they did nothing. The only reason we’re alive is because of other citizens who came to protect us,” he said.
Edri’s brother Shimon Koram said he was not surprised how his sister had managed to avoid near-certain death. Before the war, he said, Edri was known for her hospitality and generosity, working at a nearby military base cooking meals for soldiers. He added that the two were raised in a working class family in Ofakim with 12 siblings, a childhood that taught them how to be scrappy.
“We learned to survive and acquired the wisdom of life like street cats,” Shimon said, adding, “you can see that in how she acted.”
Biden’s solidarity visit to Israel
Biden landed in Israel under the shadow of a deadly blast at a Gaza hospital, which has inflamed regional tensions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally welcomed him on the tarmac, putting his arms around the US president who then clasped his hands around Netanyahu in a sign of the newfound bond between the two leaders.
Under unusually tight security even for the US president, Biden and Netanyahu chatted briefly on the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport surrounded by their guards before their motorcades set off for a Tel Aviv hotel where they will hold talks.
(With agency inputs)