New Delhi: An Israeli woman reportedly distracted her Hamas captors by serving them coffee and Moroccan cookies till her police-officer son rescued her. According to a report by New York Post, Israeli couple Rachel Edri and David were held captive inside their Ofakim residence by the Hamas militants for 20 hours.
"I knew that if they are hungry, they are angry. I told him I had to inject insulin, trying to distract them from the fact I have children who are police officers ... I offered them drinks: Coke Zero, water,” Rachel told ABC News.
Understanding that it was a life and death issue, the Israeli woman kept her captors distracted by serving them beverage, and asking for Arabic lessons till her son reached.
“I'll teach you Hebrew and you'll teach me Arabic,” Rachel recalled how she kept the five armed men busy.
Speaking to Israel's Channel 12 News, Rachel said, “I said to my husband, if we will die, we will die together.”
According to reports, Rachel was one among the several Israelis invited to meet US President Joe Biden during his visit to Israel. The US President thanked her for defending the country.
Narrating her harrowing experience, the Israeli woman said five Hamas militants stormed into her house and took her and husband captives. When their son Evi, who is a police officer, came, he saw his mother being restrained at the neck by one of the militants. He held a grenade in his other hand, threatening to kill her, ABC News stated in its report.
Rachel held up five fingers over her face to indicate to her son that there were five of them in their house. The Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) team finally came and rescued the couple.
The Hamas militants were killed by the Israeli special forces during the rescue operation.