Saving Lives Under Lethal Duress

 

"I opened my wallet and told him to take everything I had, NIS 1,500 [$370], just to save myself and Nitza. I showed him the plane ticket and asked him just not to take that."

"It’s a miracle that I stayed alive. I told my mother that I was going to die, and I asked her to send me a picture of my son because I felt that I wouldn’t get out of this alive."

"There were a lot of them, and I was sure they would kill us. I stood up and said to one of them, ‘Hello sir.’ Then he asked me, ‘Where is the money'?"

"Nitza woke up and wanted to protest, and he started yelling at her. I was scared, I told her ‘Nitza, please be quiet,’ and I looked at him. I saw that he was getting nervous, and I was even more worried. I told him, ‘Please, sir, she is old and doesn’t understand anything. Please don’t do anything."

"Please, sir, don't take my passport or my ticket for my flight."

Camille Jesalva, 31. Filipino caregiver in Israel

Nitza Hefetz with Camille Jesalva. (Shalev Shalom, Yedioth Aharonoth)

 

On the evening of October 6 at Kibbutz Nirim, close to the border with Gaza, a party was being held to celebrate the 77th anniversary since the founding in 1946 of the communal farm where Camille Jesalva had worked for almost five years as a caregiver to an elderly Jewish woman, Nitza Hefetz who had lived on the Kibbutz for 70 years. Both women had been in hiding for hours, since dawn when unusual sounds led them to believe there was danger and they sought out the safe room.

Then it happened -- the house was invaded and ransacked, the climax of a morning of pure unadulterated terror, part of a national nightmare represented by the atrocities that took place on October 7 when Hamas terrorists broke through the electronic high-tech separation wall to flood into Israel in the early morning hours, heading straight for the towns, villages and kibbutzim identified by maps they consulted during the many rehearsals that took place before the horrendous invasion.

Camille had planned for a vacation, returning to the Phillipines to see her family after a long absence. She was particularly anxious to see her son, now seven years of age. But she had postponed the trip in favour of first attending the Kibbutz anniversary celebration, to be with the people who now comprised her second family, the other caregivers and the residents. She was also involved in trying to find a temporary substitute care worker who could take her place until she returned.

When they turned in that night, after the celebrations, Camille explained after their ordeal was all over, that she had felt a strange premonition that something dreadful was about to happen. That dread woke her from an uneasy sleep at 5 a.m. And then 90 minutes later warning sirens of incoming rocket fire began blaring. That was not particularly uusual, it had happened for years that rockets were launched into Israel from Gaza, so as per routine they moved into the safe room.

The red alerts didn't stop and hours went by until the electricity abruptly failed and Camille heard gunshots. She let herself out of the safe room and crept about the house, finally realizing that it had been broken into; the door open and so was a window. And then she heard Arabic voices in the house: "They were so loud and noisy, I realized it was not the military", she recalled.

Over the following hours the terrorists entered their house four times and it was on the fourth occasion that one of the terrorists entered the safe room, his cellphone light illuminating the room. "Hello, sir", said Camille. The man asked "Where is the money?" His voice woke Nitza who said "Go home", leading her caregiver to tell her: "Nitza, please be quiet". "She saw I was scared, so she shut up", explained Camille later.

After Camille emptied her wallet of all the cash it contained representing the entire savings she had put together for her planned trip to the Phillippines the following week, she was asked "Is there more money?" When she responded in the negative, and after yet nother search through the completely dishevelled house, she walked the man to the door. "Thank you, sir. I am closing the door now." He nodded and walked out.

The following two and a half hours the two women lay in bed trembling and crying, clasping one another. "She had this look on her face. I love you, and smiled like a doll. If it wasn't for Nitza, I would be dead", said Camille later, describing their ordeal. In the afternoon, the Israel Defense Forces arrived to rescue the women. On the way to the kibbutz social hall where they were gathering, Camille saw burned cars, bullet-riddled houses and allied destruction that resulted from the attack.

Nitza Hefetz, pictured with Camille Jesalva, celebrates her 95th birthday at the Nofim home for seniors in Jerusalem, October 22, 2023. (Facebook)