Terror Survivor Details Horrors of Israel Attack: ‘A Genocidal War Cry’

Adele Raemer loved life in her small Israeli kibbutz, calling it “95% heaven” before the horror of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack shattered that reality.

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Raemer told CBN News during a sit-down interview at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville, Tennesse, she and her family and community in Kibbutz Nirim were celebrating the Simchat Torah holiday the night before the attack.

“We had lots of visitors, and the atmosphere was festive, and everybody had a good time,” she said. “And, before I went to bed, my [33-year-old] son, who was visiting … I told my son, ‘If you don’t see me in the morning when you wake up, don’t worry, because I want to go take out my camera to the fields and take pictures of the wildflowers at sunrise on October 7th.’”

Fortunately, Raemer was too tired that morning to wake up early enough to head out — something that very likely saved her life, considering her kibbutz is just one mile from the border.

“If I hadn’t … been too tired, I would not be sitting here and talking with you today,” she said.

Raemer started hearing rockets around 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 7. She said it didn’t take long to realize the assault was “something different” from the normal incursions that unfold, especially considering its widespread and intense nature.

Watch Raemer’s story:

“You have between zero to 10 seconds to get to someplace safe … from the second you hear the warning until the second you hear that rocket explode,” she said. “So, I ran to my safe room, which is … my guest room and my son was sleeping in there, and we realized that this was something different [from normal], because it was such a heavy barrage.”

Soon, messages started coming in on Raemer’s internal kibbutz messaging system letting residents know Israel had been invaded.

She and others in the community locked their doors and windows and went back in their safe rooms.

At first, she said she didn’t take the situation too seriously, not realizing the horrific carnage unfolding — a deadly horror that left those in their saferooms vulnerable to Hamas terrorists on the ground.

“The problem is safe rooms are built to keep you safe from rockets,” she said. “They don’t lock [and] they’re not built for infiltration. So, we were in the safe room waiting and hoping that this is going to finish soon.”

But the terrorists were on the ground and infiltrating homes, attempting to shoot through safe room doors and even setting homes ablaze. Raemer’s fellow Israelis could hear Arabic outside their safe rooms as bullets began to fly.

“As more and more people are writing [on the messaging system], we hear them outside,” she said. “We hear them shouting and shooting.”

Raemer’s son held down the handle on her safe room to protect them. People did the same in other nearby homes. One family with a 10-day-old baby was in their safe room when terrorists entered the house and set it on fire after being unable to break through the door to reach the family.

“When they set the house on fire, smoke was streaming into their safe room with this 10-day-old baby,” Raemer said. “And they’re on the phone trying to get help from the army, from the fire department, from the police … and they’re telling them, ‘We can’t get to you; nobody’s coming.’”

But the family followed advice to open a window a little and intermittently put the newborn on the ledge so he could get fresh air. At the same time, Raemer’s son-in-law was in his nearby home defending her grandchildren from the unthinkable.

“He heard the terrorists entering his house and he told the children, ‘Hide under the blanket. Don’t come out no matter what happens. You’re gonna hear a loud noise, but don’t come out from under the blanket It’ll be okay,’” she recounted. “He saw the handle starting to move, kicked the door open, and shot the terrorist that was just outside his safe room door. He killed that terrorist.”

As for Raemer, she and her son spent hours in her safe room until she exited due to physical pain and the need to use her restroom. That’s when she noticed the terrorists had broken the slats on her window yet no one was inside; somehow, they had skipped her home.

Raemer is still struggling to process all that unfolded, noting that the realities of what her community endured remind her of the horrors the Jewish people faced before and during World War II.

“These are stories that I heard when I was a child about the Holocaust,” Raemer said. “I’m living in my own country, in the land of Israel. We have an army. We’re 2023. How is it that I’m hiding in my safe room from the Nazis of 2023 who are coming to kill me because I’m a Jew — just because I’m a Jew?”

She continued, “They don’t have any national aspirations. If they did, they could have had a country long ago, numerous times. They’re just there to kill us. They want us gone. When they say, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.’ That’s a genocidal war cry and I take them at their word.”

Raemer said she’s now a refugee in her own country, as she still can’t live in her home or community. She’s currently helping raise money to rebuild and make the community “bigger, and better, and stronger, and safer.” Watch her full story above.