The Glenn Beck Program - Ep 203 | 'I Covered Myself with Bodies': Hamas Attack Survivor Details EVIL | Lee Sasi | The Glenn Beck Podcast

Episode Date: December 2, 2023

On October 7, 2023, Lee Sasi had plans to dance the night away with friends and family. She was just miles from the Gaza border at the Supernova music festival when an unfathomable horror began to unfold before her eyes. Hamas terrorists seemed to have only one goal: mass destruction, pain, and brutality inflicted on as many Israelis possible. “I was screaming out to God,” Sasi, a Jewish survivor of that deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel, says about her time hiding under dead bodies in a bomb shelter right outside the festival. Around 30 or 40 people sought refuge in that bomb shelter. Only eight came out alive. On this harrowing episode of "The Glenn Beck Podcast," Sasi tells her story of survival in the face of pure evil. “They tried to eliminate us,” she says. But they couldn’t eliminate her. Now, guarded by a special kind of optimism she says she's always had, Sasi is determined to be alive for a reason. Sponsors:  When you buy socks from https://grip6.com/BECK, you’re supporting American ranchers and American manufacturers. You’re also getting a pair of socks that keep your feet warm in the winter and cool in the summer.   Right now, you can save $200 on an EdenPURE Thunderstorm Air Purifier 3-pack for whole-home protection. You’ll get three units for under $200. That's a fraction of the cost compared to other air purifiers that can go for over $600. Just go to http://edenpuredeals.com and enter discount code GLENN.   If you're one of the millions of Americans who suffer every day from pain, there is hope, and it comes in the form of Relief Factor. If you want a drug-free and natural way to get your life back, go to https://relieffactor.com or call 1-800-4-RELIEF to get the $19.95 three-week quick start.   My Patriot Supply is the nation’s largest preparedness company. Go to https://mypatriotsupply.com and save big on their three-month emergency food kit, which is $200 off, and includes a delicious variety of breakfasts, lunches, dinners and more. These meals offer 2,000 calories per day, and they’re so easy to prepare.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

60% of the vans on Amazon come a vendor independent like Sac Magic. Hello, here Camille of Sac Magic. Our compresses, show of fraud, are fabriced in Quebec, and our presence on Amazon enlarge our clientele

to the world entire. Trouve of little enterprises like that other on our own.com. On October 7th, Hamas terrorists attacked Israel massacuring over 1,200 people and abducting 240 more.

The stories that are coming out from October 7th are astonishing. People were butchered in their homes, raped in the streets, beheaded, burned alive. It's evil like I have not seen before on display. But just hours before the attack, there were people dancing until sunrise at the Supernova Music Festival. They could never have imagined what would happen to them after sunrise. They could have never imagined that nearly one third of the total deaths that day would come

from those they were dancing with. Today's podcast, we have a survivor from the Supernova Music Festival. We have with us today a 25-year-old American woman who was there at the Supernova Music Festival saw the horror of Hamas up close. She survived by hiding under dead bodies. She shared her phone footage with us from that day. Be warned, it's very graphic.

This is the festival prior to the attack. You can see everyone dancing and enjoying themselves. This is her view from inside the bomb shelter where she hid from Hamas. You can see how many people have already been murdered by Hamas's guns and grenades. One more view. This one's right outside of the shelter. You can see the dead bodies spilling out of the shelter. It is only by the grace of God that this young woman made it out alive.

she is here to tell her story. Today on the Glenn Beck podcast, we welcome Lee Saucy. I want limited commercial interruption. So let me just tell you about a couple sponsors here right off the start. First, nothing worse than having odors in your home that just won't go away. That's why we have a sponsor called Eden Pure. You have teenagers, and you can cook fish, bad smell either way. When you get the Eden Pure thunderstorm air purifier, the fish smell and the teenager smells, gone.

It doesn't matter what it is. The thunderstorm knocks out the smells in the room. You don't have to replace a filter. It's not covering up. Eden Pure has sold over 350,000 thunderstorms so far. They have thousands of five-star reviews online. I will tell you that we have three of them in our home, and we have one by the kitchen. We have one with the teenagers and one in the main part of the house.

And I have to tell you, the house always smells good. It smells clean. This week they're running a special amazing that you don't want to miss. Right now, you can save $200 on three thunderstorms for the whole home protection. Actually, I think we have four because we put one in our refrigerator, too. three units for under $200. Go to Edenpuredeals.com. Enter the discount code, Glenn,

Edenpuredeals.com. Also, let me tell you about my Patriot supply. Boy, you want to be prepared in so many ways temporarily, spiritually, as you will hear today, being prepared spiritually for what could come is really important. But you also physically want to be prepared. our world can change in a heartbeat and you need you and your family to be ready for any eventuality so you are not a burden on others you are actually able to help my patriot supply is the country's largest preparedness company in the country it is equipped to stock the shelves

so you can have a three month emergency food kit breakfast lunch dinner snacks last up to 25 years it's now $200 off. You can get one for each member of your family. You put it up on the shelf. You don't think about it again. It lasts 25 years. And it's really good. You just add water and heat and then you eat.

Make sure every member of your family has at least a three-month emergency food kit from My Patriot Supply. Go right now. Mypatriotsupply.com. That's Mypatriotsupply.com. Order by three in your order ships today. Thank you for coming. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

We were talking before the recording about, I don't want to re-traumatize or anything else. And you said actually talking about it helps you. How or why? I think after what I've been through, you know, seeing, you know, us getting killed, seeing people getting killed. seeing people getting killed in front of my eyes. You know, I feel like it's really important that as long as I'm alive to bring awareness to what happened and not to let this happen again because a lot of people saying that it's lies, but it's not lies.

It's real life. And a lot of people are suffering a lot of trauma from this. So before we get into the story, I want to know who you were because I imagine you're quite different today than you were. on the 6th of October. Oh yeah, definitely. So tell me about you. Who were you?

Before I was, you know, just a simple person. I used to love, I used to like to travel and be with family. You're 25? I'm 25 years old. Where did you grow up? Yes, I'm 25 years old. I grew up in Los Angeles, my whole life. relatively normal easy life yeah i had a normal life an easy life you know i went to public school

you know i grew up with all sorts of different types of people you know um i had a diverse background with friends did you ever encounter real anti-semitism um not after october 7th not you mean not before not sorry pardon me not before october 7 yeah pardon me so you never had that No, no. And it was hard to believe in a point in a way. Not I believed it. I knew that the Holocaust happened. Right. But I didn't think that something like this would happen again in my lifetime. Nor to you. Nor to me, exactly. So why were you over in Israel? Is this your first time over in Israel? No, I've been to Israel many times. My father, he's Israeli. He was born and raised in Israel. And I have a boyfriend, a fiancé now, actually.

He's from Israel as well. And we had planned to go to Israel to meet his family, for me to meet his family and to meet his mother and to spend the holidays with his family. So you were engaged before? No. No. So we wanted to meet the family first. Yeah, we went to meet the family. He wanted me to meet the family.

And we went together as boyfriend and girlfriend. And on the second day, when we arrived to Israel, he proposed to me. me in the Jerusalem at the Kotel, the Western Wall. Yeah, it was really special. And what day was that? I think that was, it was like two days before Rosh Hashanah, which is the Jewish New Year. I think it was September 13th. Okay.

September 13th. So then, did you plan on going to the concert? I did plan to go because my cousin, he was a big organizer for the event. What was it? Because it seemed like, I mean, no offense, from Kemp. California, so you'll understand. I'm from the West Coast, too. It seemed very hippy, very just like, right? It's very hippy. This location where they did the party, it's a known location for nature parties. What's a nature party? A nature party is, that's a good question. This is what they call it in Israel. They call it the nature parties. It's our, their type of raves.

Okay. You know, for us, we call raves, raves there. They call their raves nature party. But it's basically a music festival. with different DJs, with genre of trans, mainly trans and techno, and it's in the outdoorsy, and it's very, you know, normally it's small groups, small capacity, normally there's like four or five hundred people at these events. How many were at this? But this event was a big event for Israel,

and it was around 4,000 people. And was the, I mean, because it was the point piece, and we should all get along? Yes, it was a Nova. I think it was called Nova Peace Festival. It was a peace festival for people that love music and love to dance. My cousin, he was a big organizer for this event, so I knew about it weeks in advance. In fact, when I found out that my flight was, I was supposed to leave Israel on October 3rd, and I decided to extend my stay in Israel so I could go to this event. I, like, was determined to go to this event.

You know, it was excited for it. Who'd you go with? So I had gone, I had planned to go with my uncle Avi, her, his, his, sorry, my uncle Avi, his daughter, Danielle, Danielle's husband, Maor, our good friend Alex. And we planned to meet up at the event with my other cousins, Nizza Nalidore, and my cousin Amri, who was planning the event. I originally wanted to go with my fiance. I had begged him all weeks, all weeks,

the weeks that I had known about this event, I was begging him to join me. And he didn't go. He didn't want to come because at first he said he was going to come. And then he found out that the event was on a Friday evening, which is Shabbat. And not only Shabbat, it was the holiday of Simcha Torah. Which is?

Which is a holiday. It's a Jewish holiday where, after Sukkot, after Sukkot, the holiday, they open the Torah and they dance with the Torah. It's like the beginning of the Torah, you know, before I'm getting goose from speaking. It's like the beginning. It's the new chapter when they finished reading the whole book. And Sukkot is where you live out in a tent. Yeah, Sukkot is a holiday. I'll be quite honest. I need to know more about my Jewish heritage and my backgrounds. I'm working on it. But Sukkot is a different Jewish holiday.

where they build, they build walls out of five walls. I'll be honest with you. I don't want to say the wrong information. No, no, no. I understand. Because I'm not so, uh, no. Religious. I'm, my goal is to be more closer to God and to know all of this stuff.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I bet it means a lot to you now. It does. It does. So this, um, festival is happening out in an open field? Yes, in the middle of nowhere. It's in the open field. In fact, it's by the Gaza Strip.

I didn't even realize that it was that close until we arrived towards the area of the party. But to get to this party, it's in the middle of nowhere. You have to drive on a road that goes down for miles on end. You have to drive 30 minutes to reach this party on this one-way road. It's like in the middle of nowhere. And when you get to this party, all the kibbutz, which is where the terrorist had taken people from their homes,

was all in this area. It was all very close to each other. When you got there, you didn't think anything. You know, I didn't think about, I didn't think that this would happen, but I think our bodies, we all have instincts, you know, our intuition. It was weird, because when we were on the way to the party,

my uncle, Avi, he was freaking out that we were so close to the border. He's like, oh my gosh, there's the border. Here, you know, we're so close. And he started, he was getting paranoid. In fact, when we stopped to put gas in the car to go to the party and we were by the border, he was like, I need everyone to stand next to me outside. Like, I'm scared.

Like, always looking over his shoulder. So we were, we were paranoid that we were so close to the border. We didn't realize how close we were until we got there. So the party starts. What time are you there? We arrived to the party at around 2.30 in the morning. It took us about an hour to get to the party. and we got there on 2.30.

We arrived with a lot of people. There was a lot of people that had arrived at the same time. What time are these things? I'm old. It's okay. This party, I think it started at like 8 p.m. in the evening, and it goes all the way till the following day at 3 p.m. So it's like a long day party.

It's like a full over 24 hours, like a little bit less than 24 hours, I would say. But it's a full night today. So you get there? So we got to the party. We entered, it's not, it's a big party for Israel, but for me as an American, this is, this is small. It was very, you would remember your, or you're walking. You remember the stages and the location. So we were walking through the area just to get like a scope of where everything is.

And we walked through the campgrounds and it was nice. A lot of people were coming up to us and speaking to us. in fact, this one stranger just came up to my uncle. And he's like, hey, you, you look like you make the best stakes in the world. And we all looked at this man in shock because my uncle was, in fact, one of the best barb. He made the best stakes in the world, like the best and the best. And we were in shock that this stranger just came up to him and said that. It was like, are you psychics?

Are you an angel? Where did you come from? It was really weird. And then this guy was speaking to us for 10 minutes. and he left. And then after this guy left, another guy came up to my uncle. And he's like, hey, you, how old are you? You look like you're 25. And my uncle's 65.

And my uncle's a very young soul. It was just like a lot of people were going up to him. And it was, I just remembered those good times, you know, that was a good memory of mine from this evening. And we had a beautiful night. Everyone was in such good vibes. Everyone was happy. Everyone had different outfits on.

They all looked hippy, you know. This is a hippie party. People dress themselves. Dressed as themselves, excuse me. And we were at this one stage and we were dancing until sunrise. It was a beautiful night. And then we got tired. We decided that we wanted to sit down and relax before we were going to head home.

And we were sitting in this tent area where there wasn't any music. There was couches and whatnot. So we were sitting there just viping. And I was sitting with my uncle. And he was going through his story. phone showing me pictures that he has on his phone like things that he made the foods that he's cooked and like pictures of him and his aunt his nephew a meat which he loved very dearly just going through photos showing me photos which i was look at signs me personally and now i think back i'm like

that's strange that he was showing me all these photos it was like as if he knew in his soul that it was about to be his ending it was very interesting um and then the sunrise came up and he's like let's go dance one last time before we hit home. So we went and we were dancing for about 30 minutes. And my uncle never tells me, never takes pictures with me. And we were dancing by the tent and you could see the sunrise. It was gorgeous. So I was taking videos.

And my uncle's like, let's take some photos, Lee. This is a perfect time. I'm like, you're right. Let's do that. So I took up my phone and I started taking selfies with him. And we were dancing and it was beautiful. beautiful. Everyone was just in such a good mood. And then you see what looked like fireworks coming into the sky. And I thought to myself, this couldn't be fireworks. It's morning. You know, fireworks is in the nighttime. And then it clicked in my brain that this isn't fireworks. This is rockets, missling into Israel from Gaza. Was it coming towards the, are you okay? Yeah, I'm okay. You know, I found out that sighing is very good for me. It really sees your stress. Don't worry.

Good, okay. So the rockets were coming. Were they shelling or looking like they were attempting to hit the music festival? It was just shooting into the air. It was more farther out. It was going not towards our area, but you could still see them. Yeah, yeah. And there was a lot of them coming.

And they were coming from all areas. You know, some were coming towards us. But thank God for the drum. I'm sorry, there's an iron dome. Iron Dome that protects us from those missiles. So in this area where the party is located, there isn't any sirens because no one lives in this area. It's like an open field. So there wasn't any sirens to alert us.

So the people that actually saw the rockets notified everyone around. And then after five minutes of the rockets missling, they had shut off the music and they were telling everyone to evacuate the party. At this point, we were walking towards the car, and everyone was walking, leaving the event area. And I remember a lot of the people that were with us, not with us, a lot of people that were at the party, they were saying, it's okay, don't worry, this is normal. Rockets are being found into Israel all the time.

This is a normal protocol for them. And they didn't look scared. Not a lot. Some looked scared and most didn't really, it was normal to them. So I was telling to myself, okay everything's okay this is normal we just have to find shelter that's that's our priority at this moment so the first time i was in israel i was really spooked it was right after 9-11 it was really

spooked because when you see israel you're always like it's always on fire there's always people killing people and it's not like that no and uh i was in i can't remember a border town and they fired a rocket and um and it landed by us but i was It's a different vibe. It's different because like, you know that you're going to be safe. Why? Because when there's rockets being flown into Israel, there's bomb shelters in every home. Mostly every home.

90% of the homes have bomb shelters. Not only do the homes have bomb shelters, but there's actually bomb shelters on the roads next to bomb steps. Sorry. Next to boss, I'm sorry, I can't speak. No, no, no. So that's what I was going to get at. You're in the middle of a field.

I remember bomb shelters being everywhere. Yeah, so there's normally bomb shelters everywhere in Israel and where we were located. There was bomb shelters at every bus stop. And I had recalled seeing a bomb shelter on the way to the event. I have a good memory. I remember things without realizing it until I need to use it. So when we had evacuated the party and went into the car, our priority was to find shelter. So my uncle was like, we need to find shelter.

We need to find a bomb shelter. And I said to him, I remembered where the bomb shelter is. Let's get onto the main road. I'll direct you to it. Because there's not many roads. There's only one road out of this event. And you're 30 minutes on this road. Yeah, you're 30 minutes.

Exactly. So I told him we got out the event. We made a left-hand turn on this main road. And we drove about eight minutes down this road until we came across the bus stop on the left-hand side. when we had, I forgot to mention, when I was at the event, at the event, I had met up with my cousin,

Nizan and Lidol, but they came in a separate car. So when we got into the cars, we went separate ways because we were in separate cars. So my cousin went into a different bomb shelter than us, but I was in the bomb. I went into the car with my uncle,

his daughter. The people that I went to the event, I went with them back into the car. And we got, there was seven of you. There was seven of us, exactly. So five of us got into the car. We went towards the bomb shelter, and we parked on the side of the road, and we entered the bomb shelter.

And when we entered... Describe the bomb shelter? Sure, of course. This bomb shelter is a five-by-eight feet made out of concrete. Most of it is... There's a lot of the space of this... From this 8-by-5, 5-by-8 is a lot of concrete. So when you go inside, it's even smaller than the actual size of it outside.

I have pictures. I think I sent it. So we entered this bomb shelter, and there was about 15 of us inside, mainly girls. A lot of them were screaming and crying, panicking. And in my mind, I'm thinking, okay, we're in a safe place. We're in a bomb shelter. What could happen? What wars could happen if a rock.

it falls on us or next to us, we're going to be safe because we're inside of a bomb shelter. So in my mind, I was trying to calm myself down and trying to stay positive on the fact that I'm in a safe place. And I started making phone calls. I called my mom. I had let her know what was going on. I told her I'm in a bomb shelter. Everything's okay.

Because at this point, everything was okay. This is different than the last call you made to your mom. That's correct. Yes. I just want to make sure the timeline. Yes, that's correct. That was in the beginning right when we entered the bomb shelter. And you were fairly positive.

I was good. Yeah, I was fairly positive. I was good. And mind you, my Hebrew isn't so well, especially when I'm stressed or I'm going through panic, I don't listen. I can't, the words don't register through my brain because I'm not focusing. A lot of people were making conversation, speaking really fast, and I couldn't understand. and I couldn't tell what they were saying. And after 20 minutes of sitting inside this small bomb shelter,

it got really hot inside. And I decided I'm going to go outside and take a deep breath and some fresh air. And I went outside the bomb shelter. And my uncle, Avi, was speaking with a brave Bedwin man, a friendly Bedwin man that was working the festival grounds. He was also hiding inside the bomb shelter from the rockets. And he came to my uncle, and he was speaking to him. And I went up to my uncle and I said, Avi, what is he saying? What is he saying? And my uncle's not answering me. He didn't want to tell me. He said, just go inside the bomb shelter. Later on, after I got, after October 7th, I found out that this, my cousin told me his, Avi's daughter, who was with us in the bomb shelter, she told me that this Bedouin man had notified Avi that there was going to be a terrorist attack because he received notice from his family. So this bedwin man was letting him.

my uncle know what was going to happen. So for people who don't know, Bedouin is a nomadic tribe, Arab. Exactly. Not necessarily pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel or any of it. Not necessarily. Yeah. We live with Bedouin.

A lot of Bedouins in Israel. We work with them. Right. So they're part of Israel. They're the citizens of Israel as well. So he was working the festival grounds and he was with us. And why would his family know about the attack? I'm not sure.

They got noticed. I think maybe someone found out. Also, when he had let my uncle know, this was already after an hour of the rockets being thrown in. And I know that Hamas was posting videos as early as 6.45 in the morning. So maybe someone saw it on telegram, maybe someone saw someone. Maybe someone saw it on the news. When it went out, I'm not sure to be honest, but he got notified and he had let my uncle know.

And I was there with my uncle when he was speaking to him, but I didn't understand what was going on. And my uncle was just saying, go inside, go inside the bomb shelter, which I'm really grateful he didn't tell me because I think I would have panicked if he had told me that there was going to be a terrorist attack. So in my mind, I had no idea that there was going to be a terrorist attack, But everybody else with me inside this bomb shelter,

they all knew that there was going to be a terrorist attack. And everyone was screaming and crying, and more people started showing up. And at this point, we're about 40 people in this bomb shelter. In a 5 by 8. In a 5 by 8 foot concrete box, which is actually smaller than 5 by 8, because more of the space is concrete.

Have you ever been to Auschwitz? I know, Michael. I would love to go. I want to go one day. It is extraordinarily difficult when you get into the actual chamber, gas chamber. But that sounds very much like a chamber. To be honest, I thought I was the Holocaust in the moment. There's text messages of me sending to my family saying,

I can't believe I'm in this. I can't believe it. I feel like I'm in the Holocaust. It's like history repeats itself. It does. Okay. So you're in? Everybody's panicked.

Everyone's panicked. And at this point, when I had entered this bomb shelter, it was already 90% full. So I was in the entryway of this bomb shelter. Oh, my gosh. So I didn't have enough space in towards. And I was with my uncle. So we were trying to get away. We weren't pushing our way in. But every time that there was an inch of space, we would try to move towards in. Just because everyone was screaming. We didn't understand what was going on. We just wanted to stay inside just in case there was going to be a rocket that hits by the bomb shelter. And you don't want to be at the doorway. And don't want to be at the doorway, especially where I was, where we were. It was a horrible spot. So more people started showing up. And then where we were, it was packed until the entryway of the actual bomb shelter. So the hallway before you enter the box was full of people. So we were packed.

And you hear this Bedouin man that was speaking to my uncle. after 10 minutes 10 minutes later you hear the same Bedouin man screaming at the top of his lungs he's saying I don't know what he was saying because he was speaking Arabic

but it sounded like he was saying I'm Arab I'm Arab and after he started screaming those words what sounded like a thousand bullets were going towards we're going off towards the hallway of the bomb shelter

and machine gun fire machine gun on Arama yeah and who everyone that was standing in the hallway of the bomb shelter, including our friend Alex, who was guarding the bomb shelter, they all died instantly. And I think there was about five to eight of them standing in the hallway. It was a very small hallway, so it couldn't fit much people, but there was a lot of people, well, eight people was a lot, you know. And your friend Alex

was one of them. I think he was one of the first, because he told us from the beginning, that he's going to guard this bomb shelter. And he's not going to let nobody pass. And he did just that, to be honest. What a guardian. He was a big guardian. In fact, the videos that were released of people like other civilians that were in the bomb shelter,

there's videos of Alex outside the bomb shelter and you see him guarding the bomb shelter, just with no fear. Like, he had no fear, even from the moment that the rockets were going off. He had no fear. I applause him. He's a hero.

He's a big hero. So when the terrorist started shooting off towards the hallway, everyone who was in the hallway died instantly, fell on the floor and the terrorist walked into the bomb shelter, walked in towards the hallway of the bomb shelter, got towards the doorway of the bomb shelter, where me and my uncle were standing. We were standing, but there was some people in front of us.

and the terrorist aimed the gun inside, the automatic gun inside the shelter and started shooting on automatic for 20 seconds, going like this, trying to kill as many of us as possible. And then after they started shooting, they threw two grenades back to back inside the bomb shelter. That's five by eight. It's a five by eight, yeah. It's, but this grenade isn't like the, I don't know the difference. I've never seen explosions of grenades, but it was, I think it's a handmade grenade or it's made from, I don't know, to be honest. I don't want to say the wrong information, but what happens when this grenade explodes, particles explodes with it. And this particles, like, can take your hand off.

It can take your foot off. It can, it flies everywhere and it, like, and it's hot too. It's like hot metal. So the grenades exploded And everyone who was around Like standing around this grenade All got killed instantly And the second grenade that had exploded

A big piece of it exploded on my uncle's chest And he had died instantly While he was standing next to me side by side And this was just the beginning I was just 7.45 in the morning They threw it when this glass, it was a glass bottle full of fluids with a piece of leather on it, not leather,

like a piece of a t-shirt or something and they light it. Yeah, a molotov. A molotov and they throw it inside. When the glass shatters, it will light on fire. So they threw two bottles of this inside the shelter and it didn't explode because there was so many bodies inside the shelter that it didn't shatter the glass, thank God. But what did, but,

But it didn't shatter, but it did explode. There was like a smoke bomb that had entered the bomb shelter from this bottle. And the smoke bomb, it chokes you. I was about to run out. I was thinking to myself, okay, I'm gonna run out. I need to breathe. I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die.

And something in my in me told me, no, you need to stay in here. You need to find strategies to stay alive. And I was looking on the floor for something. I don't know what I was looking for, but I had, I was, choking from air and I wanted to cover my face and had a jacket that was sitting around my waist that I was in fact abating to bring to the event. I took it off my waist. I put it over my head and I had crawled to the floor into a ball and I started breathing really slowly and focusing on my

breathing. And that's when I realized that my uncle had just got hit by the grenade. It was like all of this happened back to back. Like there was no time to even focus to acknowledge to even process what just had happened. And I'm sitting there and I see my uncle next to me and I see people in front of me all dead. I see a girl that her face was blown off from the gunshots, a girl that her back had, her back got exploded from the grenade and she was screaming, screaming, and we were asking her to be quiet.

We understood that she was in so much pain. But every time that she was, screaming, the terrorist would enter again and throw more grenades and would try to eliminate us. And at this point, we're like maybe 15 of us alive inside this bomb shelter out of the 40. In this moment, but this is still the morning. And this group of terrorists would leave. And then you would hear another group of terrorists coming with, in the different forms of transportation they would come with by on motorcycles on trucks on cars you would hear them always in

the different style of transportation and I could hear because I was so focusing on the sounds because that's all I could do in this moment because I was closing my eyes right and in this moment I would hear the terrorists come back again and I would pick up all the bodies that had just died and I would put them over me to shield myself from any of the expectations. explosions that they would throw into the bomb shelter. What was that like? It was, I can't even explain to you what we've been, what I've been through, what we've been through.

And I don't know how I had the energy or the power, but I, during this moments, these moments that were being terrorized by these terrorists, I took my phone out. And I started contacting my fiance. I started calling my mom. I started, right when I, when my uncle died, I called my mom. I called my mom to tell her what happened, and she couldn't understand me because there was no service. She's like, what?

Hello, hello, I can't hear you. And so I hung up, and I sent her a voice message, and that's the voice message that you heard. It was right in the moment. You can hear the terror in my voice, and not only my voice, but the people are around me in the background. It was so traumatizing, and every 30 minutes, new terrorists would attack us,

and they would throw hand grenades and there was this one time that they threw an RPG, the bomb shelter. And when they threw this RPG, it was like the bit, like all of the blasts are allowed to begin with. But this explosion, I'll never forget it.

It was like our whole bodies, whoever was dead and alive, we all like, like our bodies went up into the air and like fell back down just from the blast of the explosion. And everything, time that they attacked us you would hear the excitement and the joy in their voices they would

scream al-aqbal and they would you you hear them screaming of laughter of of joy like this is like this turns them on like that's exactly how i felt like it was horrible it was it was horrible we were in this bomb shelter for eight hours eight eight hours and every 30 and every 30 minutes the terrorists new terrorists would attack us um there was a point that i had like three bodies on me oh my gosh like i wanted them every time that someone would die unfortunately i would pick them up and i would put them with me or i would pick them up and i'd put them in the entrance like in the doorway to block us like to to shield us from the grenades so were they walking on the bodies in the hallway to get to or were they just doing everything from the hallway the end

So in the beginning, when they first attacked us, when they killed Alex in the hallway and everyone in the beginning, the terrorists had walked into the bomb shelter and attacked inside. But after that one time, they just kept throwing grenades and would shoot from the hallway. So where are you in a square if the hallway is in the front? This is a question. So I'm like right by the entryway of the door. But you're off. Like there was like a little wall

That saved me But this little wall There was a wall And then there was like the entry doorway But there was no door So it was like a doorless way right So I was right by the front In fact when we got rescued

I was the first person outside the shelter That's how close I was I was the first person Alive Not alive but I was the first person Like in front Like it was the line of people I was the first

in the bomb shelter by the entry door. You get the final part of the story here in just a second. First, let me tell you about a couple of sponsors that we have Relief Factor is a way that I got out of pain. A few years ago, I just couldn't do this with my hands. They hurt so badly. Now I'm learning how to play the piano. I can paint. I can do this with my hands.

It's amazing what Relief Factor did for me. if you've been dealing with pain in your life, please try relief factor. Works for you, you get your life back. If it doesn't, yes, you're out in 1995, but they have a deal going on right now where it's the guarantee, feel better or your money back. I mean, there's really nothing to lose here. Just try it. Relieffactor.com are called 800, the number four relief, 800, the number four relief. It's relieffactor.com.

Also, I want to tell you about a sponsor that I just love these guys because I love American entrepreneurs. I love people who not only take the risk to be an entrepreneur, but then take the risk to be an American entrepreneur. If you want to make something in America and you want to source all of the stuff from America, it is extraordinarily difficult. It has very little upside because it's so expensive in America. If you want to be competitive, your margin is so small. This is a company, Grip 6, that actually makes everything in America from American parts. That's the backbone of our economy, trying to put food on the table for our fellow Americans, give people skills. It's one of the reasons I love partnering with Grip 6.

It's a true American experience. You're buying belts or wallets or their socks. You're supporting the American ranchers who raise the bread's sheep that produce the modern wool here in America. The American manufacturers who wash the wool, then process the wool. The other people that weave it into socks that keep your feet warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It's an American business, Grip6.com slashback. Go there now. Grip6.com slash back.

It's unimaginable. being under dead people. It is. Was there any thought or was that just a natural instinct? Thank you for asking this because, you know, even for myself, if you asked me this before, I'd be like, what? I was under dead bodies?

That's insane. Never. I never felt more safe being under dead bodies. like I felt the safest with them on me rather than being without them like on top of my body like it was a it was a survival mode instinct it was definitely survival mode of I was in survival mode I was looking I was thinking about strategies to survive like in the moments when they were attacking me I was thinking about how am I going to survive this I was I remember my uncle had died I was like, okay, he has a pair of keys in his wall in his pocket, and he has a phone.

My phone has 20%. So I was thinking about, like, what's going to happen later on this day? You know what I mean? Because I had 20% on my phone, and I was trying to grab my uncle's phone so that way I could have a second backup phone, and I was trying to grab his car keys so that way when the terrorist would leave, I could get into his car and drive off, which at the end, I wasn't able to get his car keys, which I'm glad I did. And I think it would have saved my life. I would have been shot.

Met them on the road. Yeah, I would have met them on the road. But I was trying to stay positive and trying to help others around me. I was putting bodies on them. I was trying to help this girl that was in front of me. I don't know how she stayed. I don't know how she's alive. Like it was a miracle that she stayed alive because she was in front,

but she had gotten shot and she was right where the grenades were exploding. Oh, my gosh. I mean, I was also there, but she was even closer. Um, did you guys talk in those 30 minutes or what was? In the eight hours. Yeah. Um, in the moment, in the beginning, we were all in shock. Even myself, I didn't cry.

I didn't speak. I only spoke to my family on the phone because I needed, I wanted to get us help. Um, but I didn't speak with anyone around me for the first two hours. We were all like in shock. We were all kind of dozed off. disassociated with the world. Like I was aware and a focus of everything, but I was like staring into the wall.

You know, my, and you know, they say your life flashes before your eyes. Like my life really flashed. Like I started daydreaming about my life growing up when I was a kid. Like all of this, it was crazy. It was insane. But after a few hours, we did start talking. We were trying to help each other. we were looking for waters inside the shelter i mean there was this one water bottle that we found had

this much water and we were like eight nine people at this point oh my nine of us each of us took sips and we were all passing it to one another we were all trying to help each other like we weren't selfish everyone was was very um altruistic very everybody looking for each other everyone was looking out for each other no one left anyone behind we all we were keeping each other, staying, we were talking to each other and staying positive, making conversation. In fact, I was speaking to everyone, I was saying to them, what are you going to do when you get out? What are you going to eat? How universal. What's the first thing you're going to eat? What are you going to do when you get out? Yeah. And they were looking at me like,

you're crazy. Like, we're not going to get out of this, but I'm like trying to stay positive, trying to stay positive. I was screaming to God. I was praying to God. I was praying to God. I was screaming, I was telling everybody because I have a grandpa who was a big, big rabbi in my ancestry. And I was telling them, don't wear my grandpa's protecting us. Screaming his name, like being a crazy lady, you know. It's funny because you are the, you are maybe the poster child for there are no atheist in the foxhole.

You didn't go in an atheist, but you didn't, you weren't a big God person. I wasn't a big God person. I mean, I've always felt God around. But growing up, I never was taught my religion as much as I wanted to now as a person. And I feel very close to God. I feel like God gave me a second chance in life. And I feel like I owe it to God to be closer to my religion and to my roots. So I can pass this down to my children. Like, it's very important to me, especially after what happened on October 7th. So there's two ways to go from that. So let me first stop here. Did you bargain with God? I did. I would have too.

I bargained with God. I said to him two things. I said, if I'm going to die, just let me die without suffering. Because there was a lot of people that suffered in front of me, and it was horrifying to see that. And I said the second thing is if I get out of this alive, I will do everything I can in my power to be closer to you every week, every month, you know, just to be closer and to do my duties, you know, as a Jewish person and respect. Go to Shabbat.

Do Shabbat. Which, I'll be honest, it's not easy to keep Shabbat, especially when you come from a home where you never kept Shabbat. Oh my gosh, I know. You know, it's baby steps. The Jewish life is not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy.

But I do believe in baby steps. I feel like when I do baby steps and I take small every week, I do something more. It makes it easier for me to move to that side, to be more closer and to start keeping Shabbat fully. I'll be honest, I kept since October 7th, I've kept Shabbat four times. fully, but it's been a little bit hard, but every week I'm getting better. And when I don't do it fully, I feel guilt within me. And I feel it. Like, I feel like I'm doing something bad, which at least if I feel that guilt, I have.

Well, hopefully it will. Like, it gets better, you know what I mean? Hopefully it will turn in, because I was the same way when I first realized and bargained with God. and the first part was I made this promise and I would feel guilty and then it turns into I don't want to do anything other than this

this is so good it is good and it's rewarding too and when I do it I feel closer to God even more like I feel the presence I feel the rewardness I feel like good things happen and good people come around me. You are who you hang out with.

Yeah. It's a big thing. So, which is a good thing on your fiancé. Yes, yeah, and he's very close to God. So, I mean, it's amazing. That saved his life. It did save his life. And even for him, he went through different trauma,

but because of this whole thing, him not coming to the event and him standing with his grounds on not coming, I think that opened his eyes even more on being closer to God, on his end as well. So the other way to look at this is not just you spiritually,

but there have been 19 holocausts. 19. This keeps happening over and over again. And I know because I've worried about the cycle repeating for the last 20 years. I've been talking about we're planting all the wrong seeds. and a lot of Jewish people didn't see it coming, didn't recognize the seeds that are always planted before. And those who went through the Holocaust never again, and they taught it.

and I think some went one way where they said, I don't want to be with God. If God lets this happen, others were connected to their Jewishness, if you will, and to their God. And it carries with it, I imagine, responsibility,

a deeper, a need almost to, know your roots, know why you're Jewish, know why the world is doing this. Am I right or wrong? I agree. It's important. It's important for the Jewish people to know where they came from and to know their ancestors and their history. Because if we don't know what happened in the past, then history is going to repeat itself and it's going to fall off. And not just with history, but with a religion, you know. Yeah. It's unbelievable.

So you're now, what time do we go to? You're in the shelter. You're starting to talk to one another. People are still coming in. What time does this change? Around 2 o'clock, long hours. Around 2 p.m., a car rolled up. And we heard a man speaking in Hebrew.

And at first we were all very scared. you know, because we were terrified that this was a terrorist, you know, pretending to speak Hebrew. Right. So we didn't answer this man. And the voice came closer and he started entering the bomb shelter. And he said, Nizan, it's the Abba, which means Nizan is Aba. Nizan is a girl that was with us in the shelter. It's dad.

It's dad. And my cousin's husband, who was sitting next to Mima O, he said, they're here to save us. Get up, get up. And I was the first person. I got up so fast. I had ran over the bodies to the car. And when I had got into the car, I was by myself outside. And I got so scared because I saw a car coming.

I didn't know if this is a terrorist or if this is backup or whatever the case. So I had ran back into the bomb shelter running over the bodies. And the father looked at me. He's like, what are you doing here? Go back to the car. And I got so scared. So I went back to the car. Like I was so like I didn't know what to do.

I was I was just strange comfort. It was just weird. It was so strange. So we ended up all getting into the car after five minutes. We were nine of us in the car. How many out of the original seven that came with you? From the seven. So because we went to, we entered this bomb shelter.

Only five of us from the seven. So from the five of us that entered this bomb shelter, only three of us survived. to my uncle Avi and our friend Alex died in this bomb shelter. Right away. Right. Yeah, in the beginning, Alex died. He was in the hallway and then Avi was next to me when they threw the first grenades into the shelter in the beginning. They both died in the beginning in the morning. But we got into the car and Nizan's father said to us, don't look outside the window, put your head down. And we couldn't listen. We didn't listen to him.

we had to do just that. We had to look outside the window. And the drive back to safety was a war zone. Like this, there was a one-way road, this road that I had to, that I was just telling you earlier. It's very small. It's like one car on each lane. Like, there's one lane this way and one lane that way. It's one lane per car per lane.

And the lane was full of dead bodies that we couldn't even drive on the road. We had to drive on the dirt path where the field is to get to the, to get to like an open space road without bodies and cars burned to death. It was horrible. When we drove on the dirt path, it was on where they do all the farming.

You see all the dead people on the ground like they were running for their lives and they got shot. You saw people with their heads chopped off. People burned, cars that were burnt. It was worse than a scene of the Walking Dead. I don't know if you've seen that show before. It's even worse.

Worse than that. Worse than that. The things that we saw was inhumane. Not even animals do that to their own prey. You know? It's horrible. It's terrible. What do you want people to take away from our time together?

It's important for people to know what's really happening and to actually do their history, look up their history and to know actual facts instead of reading fake news and on social media, because right now I feel like a lot of people are being fed, misled information, and that's causing a lot of, that's causing a lot of issues for us on our end.

And it's horrible. Usually what happens. I mean, I'm so struck by the repeat of history here where, you know, we didn't have videos, videos, but we had eyewitnesses, and the world didn't listen. The world didn't listen. And it's not, I used to think it was because it's so horrible, why would you believe that? You couldn't believe that.

But now there's video. Now we know it. We've seen it. We've heard it. For some reason. They still don't believe us. Still they don't believe it. No, even with video, they say it's AI, how?

With AI can do something like this? You know, my cousin needs something. and her boyfriendly door when they had gone separate ways. They went in their car. We turned left. They had turned right on this main road, unfortunately. And they entered this bomb shelter, a different bomb shelter than us. And in this bomb shelter, the terrorist, in fact, they murdered my cousin and her boyfriend.

And there was a video of my cousin's boyfriend running outside the bomb shelter as the terrorist. shooting him to death. It went viral, I'm sure you've seen it. And in this specific bomb shelter, they kidnapped people. I mean, Hirsch, I don't know about Hershey's story. Hirsch's was in this bomb shelter with my cousin Nizan Lido. I hope they bring Hirsch home. So I just have to say that.

It's really important. But my cousin Nizan, she was four months pregnant when they murdered her. Four months pregnant. it was so sad. It was so sad to coming home after being saved, having to go to my cousin's funeral and my uncle's funeral

and my cousin's boyfriend's funeral. It was just like just to see them being buried when I was just with them a few days ago, you know? Somebody told me recently, what, how would your life change if you would start to view things as things aren't happening to you, but they're happening for you. And it's hard on something like this to look at it that way.

But I think you are. I think you're taking it and finding the good to come from it. and I can't thank you enough for being with me and I can't thank you for sharing this. Thank you, Glenn. God bless you. God bless you, too. Thank you.

Thank you for noticing that. I'm trying to look at the positive. I'm a positive person. That's my nature. I don't think they'll ever change. I mean, there's going to be days where I feel bad. Negative. I mean, who doesn't?

But I try to look at the positive. I say that I feel like my uncle died. to save us, to save me, his daughter, and his son-in-law, and along with the others that had survived with me inside this bomb shelter, because there's no way that we survived. It was a miracle. It was an absolute miracle, especially after seeing my uncle die in front of me, and it's not like he was sitting like where you are.

He was next to me, like he guarded me. He shielded me. was like God knew everything. Like we don't see the whole picture. You know, we just see this, but God knows, has the whole picture. It's a puzzle to every piece, you know. God bless you. Thank you, Glenn.

God bless you too. Just a reminder, I'd love you to rate and subscribe to the podcast and pass this on to a friend so it can be discovered by other people.