I had to flee Hamas three times: Kibbutz Be’eri resident's miraculous escape

“I looked at my daughter under the bed and I thought I had to be calm and strong as a rock for her so she wouldn’t panic.”

No one had come to their rescue.

Sagi says many people died in the massacre trying to hold doors closed believing they were bullet-proof. But Hamas shot them to death through them.

“My daughter made me promise her that the bad guys wouldn’t get us. She was calm and quiet and she told me to put my hands down while I was texting for help. She told me to hide properly so they wouldn’t see us through the door.”

Then Sagi heard the terrorists setting fire to his home with them inside. “Smoke was starting to engulf us in the room and we couldn’t breathe. I realised we were going to die.”

Acting on pure instinct, half-dressed and barefoot, Sagi wrapped his daughter in a blanket. He says he doesn’t remember jumping out of the window. “When I opened the door of the shelter the entire house was on fire and it was impossible to get out. The next thing I knew I was on the grass outside. I have a memory blank.”

Sagi sustained third-degree burns to his feet and legs. After checking his daughter was OK they looked for water from a hosepipe and, feeling exposed, he hid his daughter behind a neighbour’s washing machine while he treated himself.

“I sent a photo to my wife of where Dror was so that if I was killed they knew where to find her. She was very quiet and calm and did not cry, she was amazing.”

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Israeli President Isaac Herzog visits Kibbutz Be'eri after the attack (Photo by Haim Zach/GPO)

At some point Sagi decided to get to his wife and family but he was unable to run due to his injuries. Luckily he found a bike with a child seat.

“The whole time on that bike we kept riding towards terrorists. Twice Dror saved us by pointing them out. She saved me as much as I saved her. We were together in this.”

Sagi’s father’s house was not under fire at that point. His brother and his family, including a baby and pet dog, all hid in the shelter and locked themselves in and jammed the door handle, keeping everyone away from the door. “The IDF was still not in the area at this point.”

An hour later, their worst nightmare came true again. Hamas were back at their door. They sat in the dark, hot and thirsty and crammed into a small space. “Luckily the children were calm and did not alert the terrorists. Even the dog seemed to have known not to bark.”

Hamas shot at the door several times. “They were in and out of the house but this time they didn’t try to break the door down.

“I don’t know why they left when they did but I guess the IDF was surrounding them at that point.”

“When the IDF arrived that evening around 7.30pm, we didn’t believe it was them. We questioned them a lot before we trusted them to open the door. It was worse than your worst nightmare. It’s a Holocaust story. The devil is outside your door.”