On Saturday night, terrorists fired dozens of bullets at the village of Shaked in northern Samaria.
Several bullets hit the home of the Benaziri family, and the bullets penetrated through the window into the children’s room. Miraculously there were no casualties. IDF forces began searching the area for the shooters.
Shortly afterwards, the Islamic Jihad’s ‘Janin Battalion’ claimed responsibility for the attack.
This is the fifth time in recent months that the settlement has been shot at.
The chairman of the settlement committee, Chai Shmolevich, said: “How can it be that in 2023 we cannot be safe in our home from this terrorism? How can it be that time after time, they reach the same point, without any hindrance, and shoot wildly and indiscriminately?! Where is the deterrent? Where is our security?”
The Benaziri family that immigrated to Israel from France moved about a year ago to the settlement of Shaked in northern Samaria and has been dealing with a complex reality for some time. The difficult moments the family members went through yesterday since a bullet hit their house – and they are tricked into feeling great anxiety.
“Yesterday at around 5:30 p.m. when we were all in the living room, we heard the shots as if it were in our garden,” said Ah Benaziri, mother of four children aged 4, 8, 10 and 2, in an interview with News 12. in a noise and I knew it was a hit in our upstairs house.
“The bullet hit the window in the room of our toddler Livi and the 4-year-old Natan,” she continues in a choked throat. “The bullet went through the shutter, the double window, rubbed the wall and entered the door and finally fell on the floor. Immediately my husband Ilan jumped in with the emergency squad to check that there were no more damaged houses.’
What were your feelings at that shocking moment?
“It was very difficult. There have been shots fired at the settlement for a while now and this is the third hit to the house – it’s very scary. We heard gunshots and at first we didn’t know if they were explosives, follicles or gunshots, we were playing with the children downstairs. Two hours after that, the children were in the room and all the pieces were on the mattresses and on the floor,” says Leah. “It’s a big trauma – my 10-year-old daughter talks about it a lot and every time she hears gunshots, she doesn’t know whether to lie on the floor. Many people came to wrap us up and check that everything was okay.
“I had a hard night, I couldn’t close an eye. When everyone left, I started throwing up and had a severe panic attack. Cry, not easy at all. Today we woke up to a new day and went for a walk.”
What happens to the children? Do they manage to digest what happened?
“The children are currently sleeping in the nursery and do not want to go upstairs. I accompany all four of them every time.”
“We live in a difficult and scary reality,” she shares in her frustration. “It happens during the day, the children are out here playing in the field – we didn’t feel that we would deal with this. We have a shell of people, but we feel that we are limited to what can be done and the frustration of the residents is huge.”
“Why do we let them shoot at us? We have many questions and reflections”, she continues.
On Saturday night, Leah and her family members watched a video released by the Al-Aqsa Brigades showing the damage to their home, and she is still having trouble digesting what she saw. “Suddenly you see a person who shoots at your house and endangers your house and your children – it’s really hard as parents. We are building a house here and for a moment we did not want to endanger our children. We want to live in peace, but the trauma remains and the fear accompanies us in our everyday life. The consequences of this may accompany the children and us in the long term.”