CENTENNIAL, Colo. — An Israeli family is making a new home in Colorado after escaping from the fighting in their native country.
On Oct. 7, the Shalev family woke up around 6 a.m. An hour later, they heard the alarms going off in the kibbutz. Usually the alarm meant rockets. This time, it rang over an attack they couldn't imagine.
Dekel and Oshri took their three kids into the family's safe room, an emergency shelter in their home they had only ever used for rockets before October. They would spend the next eight hours hearing their neighbors in Kibbutz Be'eri being killed and tortured by Hamas militants.
"We just pray that we are not the next because that’s what it is. We were just waiting for them to kill us," said Oshri.
The couple spent the hours trying to calm down their three kids, ranging from ages 3 to 7.
"We lock ourselves in the safe room and all of the time, we heard a lot of shotguns and yelling in Arab. They knock on the door and the windows and they were scared because it doesn’t stop," said Oshri.
Once they had spent over seven hours in the safe room, they heard Hamas militants come into their home.
"They do a lot of mess and they broke everything. After that, we know that they try to burn the house because they put all the clothes on the doors and stack and tried to burn the clothes," said Oshri.
Meanwhile, they had received texts from a neighbor who said her home was on fire and she wasn't sure if she would be killed if she tried to leave her home.
By the end of the day, Hamas militants had entered the Shalev's home three times.
"We were just waiting for the end," said Oshri.
The first time Israeli soldiers arrived at their home, Oshri and Dekel were skeptical that they were actually part of the military. They asked if they wanted to be evacuated, and they replied no.
The second time soldiers arrived, they told the family the house next door was on fire. Even though they weren't sure if they truly were part of the Israeli army, the family opened the door to the safe room and ended up going to another home.
"When we run away from our outside to another safe room, there was a lot of shotgun outside," said Oshri. "It was really crazy. We don’t have the time to put shoes on."
The family was later evacuated entirely from the area with an Army jeep.
"When we start to drive outside, I saw all over the way a lot of dead bodies. I don’t believe it. I don’t understand what is this in the beginning. It was just a body all over the way," said Oshri.
The family endured so much trauma that they quickly made the decision that they no longer felt safe in Israel. At the time of the attack, Dekel was also pregnant. Within two days, the couple decided they could not keep the baby and decided to terminate the pregnancy.
"I was pregnant," said Dekel. "We [knew] that we can’t move on with the pregnancy and all the trauma with my body and we have three kids to take care of. We didn’t know where we would go. We just decided to go out from Israel, but we didn’t know where or when."
The family originally thought about moving to Europe or another country closer to Israel. Ultimately, some connections brought them to Centennial where they have found friends who have become like family once they arrived here.
They aren't sure where they will be in a year or five years. They hope they can eventually move back to Israel, but it may take years before they may feel comfortable returning.
The family has a GoFundMe if you would like to help as they settle in Denver.
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