JERUSALEM — When Hamas militants toting grenades appeared in her living room, Rachel Edri served them tea and Moroccan cookies until police stormed in and killed the attackers.
Edri’s tale of quick-witted survival during the Israel-Hamas war has turned the 65-year old woman into an unlikely folk hero in Israel. For many, she has come to symbolize the ingenuity of everyday Israelis left to fend for themselves as militants turned sleeping southern communities into bloodbaths on Oct. 7.
After an early-morning air-raid siren, Edri returned from a bomb shelter in her hometown of Ofakim to find a band of Hamas militants in her living room. As gunfire raged outside, Edri’s home saw a 20-hour tete-a-tete between hospitality and brutality.
“One of the terrorists said to me: ‘You remind me of my mother.’”
“I told him, ‘I am really like your mother. I will help you, I will take care of you. What do you need?’” Edri told Ynet.
After one of the grenade-toting gunmen struck Edri across the face with the butt of his gun, Edri soothed him. She served the militants canned pineapple, tea and her signature Moroccan cookies. She sang them Arabic songs, and they replied with Hebrew ones. She offered the men Coke Zero — when they said they preferred Coca Cola, she obliged.
“After they drank and ate, they became much calmer,” Edri told Ynet. “I started having conversations, and at one point I even forgot for a moment that they were terrorists.”
Rachel Edri, center, from Ofakim in southern Israel, poses for a portrait with Doron Almog, Jewish Agency Chairman, left, during a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. Edri, a 65 year old from the southern town of Ofakim, has become an unlikely folk hero among Israelis for narrowly escaping death at the hands of Hamas militants by feeding them tea and cookies. Edri and her husband spent nearly 20 hours in her house, entertaining five armed militants, before a rescue squad of…
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