08 October 2023 , 10:50
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A British family with a ten-day-old baby recounted their horror after hiding in a safe room as Hamas gunmen burnt down their house and ransacked their village.
Deborah Mintz took cover for nine hours with her grandson Kai and his parents Aimee and Uriel Labban after being awoken to rocket fire at 6am in the community of Nirim, one and a half miles from the Gaza border in Israel.
The family of UK-Israeli citizens cowered as their house and cars were torched. Their pet dog was killed, the family, some of whom originally from Romford, East London, said. They had to hold Kai, who was only born last month, up to the ceiling to protect him from the fumes.
A ball of fire rises over buildings in Gaza City (Sameh Rahmi/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock)The relatives were finally freed just before 3pm local time as Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) arrived and escorted them to a bomb shelter in the kibbutz, which is home to just a few hundred people. Russell Langer, a policy researcher, said he learnt of his family’s plight when they received a text message saying: "We are stuck. They came in and burnt our house".
Speaking to Telegraph, he said: "They’ve been in the safe room or supposedly safe room... since six in the morning.” He said the gunmen entered their home at around 9am. He added: "They ran straight to the safe room."
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Israeli troops gather around a cordoned-off Israeli police station (AFP via Getty Images)The family are currently in the shelter with neighbours, including one woman whose husband was killed and another who was eight and a half months pregnant. Another British citizen is missing after Hamas attacked a music festival in Israel where he was working, the country's embassy has said. Jake Marlowe has not been heard from since Saturday morning after he texted his mother, saying everything was okay and that he loved her, despite the sound of rockets soaring overheard.
And Emma Segev, from Eastbourne, East Sussex, who now lives near Ashkelon, was desperately waiting for news of her sister-in-law and her four children after the kibbutz of Be’eri was infiltrated. The 50-year-old English language teacher said last night: "They told us that Hamas were outside their door and they could hear Arabic and gunshots, but now things have gone silent.
"Last thing we heard, their house was on fire. Eventually the heat in the room got so intense they thought they would be burned alive and fled. I don’t know how they got out but they are hiding in the bushes."
At least 313 Palestinians have been killed in retaliatory Israeli military action since yesterday, the country's health ministry has said. Nearly 2,000 people have been injured, it added.