How Israeli woman ‘delayed Hamas men for 20 hours’ – Served drinks, asked for Arabic lessons

A couple Israelis held hostage for 20 hours by Hamas fighters bide their time while waiting to be rescued by offering their captors drinks, cracking jokes and asking for Arabic lessons.

After a siren forced Rahel Edri and her husband to take shelter in their home in Ofakim, five men claiming to be police officers burst in and began giving orders, Edri told Walla, according to Israel’s Haaretz.

The men, who spoke Arabic, forced the couple upstairs, smashed both their phones and began searching their wardrobes.

“They were pointing a gun at me and holding a grenade over my head,” Edri recalled. “I told them I had to inject insulin, trying to distract them from the fact that I have kids who are policemen… I offered them drinks: Coke Zero, water.”

The men then told her that they were heroes and that their children supported their actions.

While the couple was being held hostage, the men often checked the windows of the house to make sure no one was coming to rescue them.

In an attempt to buy more time, Edri started talking and joking with her captors. “I said: I will teach you Hebrew and you will teach me Arabic,” he said. “I realized it was a matter of life and death”.

“All of a sudden, around midnight, we heard the special forces come in,” she said, recalling how nervous she felt at the time that her rescuers might accidentally shoot her or her husband.

“Instead of killing us, the terrorists ran to different locations and hid until they were shot,” Edri said. “I want to thank the police. They are our heroes.”

Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip launched on Saturday the worst attack against Israel in 50 years. An estimated 800 Israelis have been killed, more than 2,000 wounded and 100 confirmed captured by Hamas.