Hen Biton tells of narrow escape from Hamas fighter

First came the gunshots, and then the thud that told an Israeli woman terrorists were arriving from the sky, giving her only moments to save her family.

When the silhouette of the lone armed Hamas parachuter fell from the sky and landed in her street, Hen Biton thought she was hallucinating.

“I had been sitting on my terrace for six days waiting for something to happen and finally, there it was,” she said.

“I heard the gunshots first, before he landed, but I saw him, clearly, before my eyes and screamed at the children to get inside the bomb shelter, I slammed the door so hard I broke my finger.”

Two minutes later, at 6.02pm on Thursday night, Israeli police were seen running into the street and gunned him down. Telegram app messages reported three more gunmen on foot in the street.

What happened next as she huddled with her children, Lian, 16, and Orio, 13, on her fourth floor apartment of their home in Ashkelon, a coastal city in the Southern District on the Israel Gaza border is worthy of a plot in a Hollywood horror movie.

Mother of two Hen Biton, a refugee from Ashkelon near the Gaza border, fled her home after an armed Hamas parachuter landed in her street. Pictured with her grandmother Aviva Mahlfum, 84. Both are Israeli refugees in Tel Aviv. Picture: Danielle Gusmaroli

A Facebook note to her private page appeared warning, “Hen Biton I recommend you to leave this country on behalf of the Palestinians, it’s not safe for you or your children soon you will find the people of Abu Obadiah knocking on your door”.

“I’m ex army, I was a combat soldier in the army, and if I didn’t have my children I would get a Kalashnikov and go to Gaza,” Ms Biton said.

“But I had a panic attack, I was so afraid I grabbed the kids and few belongings and got in the car and drove north, I don’t know where to, I just drove.”

Ms Biton and her kids drove 52km north to Tel Aviv, and are now in the Seven Seas hotel on Jerusalem Beach.

The hotel normally charges 455 shekels ($A187.26) a night but has no tourists after they fled home following the conflict. It has instead has become a refugee camp housing more than 70 displaced Israelis.

Seven Seas hotel refugee camp in Tel Aviv. Picture: Danielle Gusmaroli

Ms Biton and her family, including her grandmother Aviva Mahlfum, 84, are among the hundreds of refugees in their own country, since Hamas terrorists, under a barrage of rockets, broke through into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip last Saturday, killing and kidnapping residents, including women and children.

At least 1200 were murdered, including 260 people killed at a music festival.

More than 100 hostages are believed to be in Gaza, which has been pounded with 6000 bombs since Israel declared war following the attack, as fears grow of a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave.

More than 1400 Palestinians have died so far, with the Israeli military warning around a million people to leave northern Gaza ahead of an expected ground invasion.

Despite the unrelenting bombardment of Gaza by Israel, Hamas is still firing rockets and breaking through into Israeli territory.

“I don’t feel safe any more in my own country, Israel is not safe,” said Ms Biton.

“Normally I am brave, Ashkelon gets hit by rockets all the time, every few weeks or month but now I’m like margarine.

“Now when my phone alerts me of a text message, I jump out of my skin.

“I hadn’t left the house since Saturday, not even to throw out the trash, I have an American passport, I want to move there, Hamas are burning, and raping us and killing us and laughing about it on Tiktok and Facebook.

A message sent to mother of two Hen Biton, a refugee from Ashkelon near the Gaza border, telling her to flee her home after an armed Hamas parachuter landed in her street. D

“I’m scared for my kids, my army girlfriends who are lookouts into Gaza have died,” she said.

“My mum won’t come, she’s scared to leave the house, but my uncle brought my grandmother, I love her so much, I want her to be safe, too, but she doesn’t want to live anymore.

“She lost her husband of 70 years four months ago and she’s had enough. Of life, of Israel.”

Sitting in Mickey Mouse pyjamas on the sofa in the foyer of the hotel, her grandmother Aviva Mahlfum, 84, smiled solemnly.

“Mickey Mouse is on the television but no one watches the TV anymore, it’s full of blood and death,” she said.

“Tel Aviv is not my home, I’m not afraid of Hamas, I miss my husband and I would go tomorrow if I could. But I have six children, 25 grandchildren, 16 great grandchildren and they are scared of Hamas and want me to be with them.”

Also at the hotel are brothers Ori Buskila, nine, and Guy, 12, who have been playing chess to while away the hours.

Ori, still deeply saddened by the massacres, has been buoyed by a Facebook message of support sent by Ukrainian-Australian soccer player Nikita Rukavytsya, who played for his Maccabi Haifa football club.

“It’s important for Ori, it makes him strong and he loves Nikita and we all love his old team,” Ori’s mother Yamit said.

“I’m not afraid of the rockets,” said Ori who arrived at the camp from Ashkelon in the middle of the night on Wednesday.

“Im scared the men will come to our house and take us,” he said.

Refugee Michal Naftali, 21, from southern Kiryat Gat, is still coming to terms with losing friends at the Supernova rave in the desert, stormed by Hamas militants.

“You know, the whole of Israel will need therapy for years after what has happened,” she said.

“You’re a journalist, maybe you can tell what’s going to happen, or when it might end?”

Originally published as Hen Biton tells of narrow escape from Hamas fighter