Hamas Death Squads - Why?
Sisters Yahel and Noiya with their mother Lianne
Why would 'freedom fighters' feel the need to murder, in the coldest of cold blood, two young sisters Noiya (16), Yahel (13) and their mother Lianne (48) - innocent Israeli civilians all three?
Now I'm all in favour of peace and a two-state solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict but these Hamas led terrorist atrocities are all about war - not peace.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/british-teenagers-hamas-attack-funeral-0j5tlhfrv
Grief and resolve at funeral of UK mother and girls killed by Hamas
Friends of Noiya and Yahel were overcome by grief at their schoolmates graveside
The last time the whole Sharabi family gathered in Kibbutz Be’eri they celebrated a bat mitzvah. Now three of them rest here, and two more remain missing
By George Grylls, Kfar ha-Rif - The Times
Beneath the shade of cypress trees at a cemetery in southern Israel, Lianne Sharabi and her two teenage daughters, Noiya, 16, and Yahel, 13, were laid to rest last night after an emotional ceremony framed by the setting sun.
The 48-year-old mother from Bristol and her two children died at the hands of Hamas gunmen, who broke into the Be’eri kibbutz on October 7, indiscriminately slaughtering the people who lived there.
The British-Israeli family held out hope that Noiya, 16, had escaped the massacre after her body was left undiscovered for several days after the attack. But she was later confirmed dead in news that piled further pain on the teenager’s grieving grandparents in England.
TIMES CHIEF NEWS PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL
The girls’ father, Eli, is still missing, as is their uncle Yossi. Both are presumed to be among the 222 hostages being held in Gaza. Mourners wore white T-shirts that simultaneously commemorated the lives of Lianne, Noiya and Yahel and pleaded for the release of the remaining family members who may still be alive.
“Usually when you bury someone it is time to start mourning. But we do not have this opportunity,” said Raz Matalon, the brother-in-law of Eli and Yossi, standing by the flower-covered graves of the teenage girls. “We’re going to bring back their father and their uncle — all our thoughts are about how we can get them back. We are not afraid to go anywhere or speak to anyone.”
In a ceremony that reflected the dual heritage of the Sharabi family, hundreds of mourners heard how Lianne was famed for her dry sense of humour, her ability to quote Blackadder and her childhood of rabbit-watching holidays in Scotland. One of the mourners paired an England football shirt with a yarmulke and eulogies were read in both English and Hebrew.
“The land of Israel envelops you and your girls today,” said Natasha Cohen, Lianne’s best friend on the kibbutz. “But so does the heart of your beloved England.”
TIMES CHIEF NEWS PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL
Lianne was 19 when she moved to Israel to volunteer on a kibbutz. While there, she fell in love, telling her parents three months later that she intended to stay. Her mother, Gill, was dispatched to assess the credentials of her future husband and — regardless of his support for Manchester United — the couple were given their blessing.
“We will miss our girl to the end of our days and keep her in our hearts forever, tucked away with the fondest memory of her 48 years,” Gill said in her eulogy. “Good night, sleep tight, sweetheart.”
At times during the ceremony, the teenage friends of Noiya and Yahel were overcome by grief, collapsing by the side of their schoolmates’ graves in disbelief.
The mourners offered arms of condolences to those who broke down in tears. One frail matriarch was supported by friends as she made her way to the graves. At the end of the ceremony, devastated mourners picked fallen pomegranates — a sacred Jewish symbol — from the orchard opposite the cemetery.
Lianne’s brothers were able to take some solace from memories of the last time the whole family gathered at Be’eri: the joyous occasion of Yahel’s bat mitzvah in July. The ceremony was organised for the 13-year-old by her older sister, Noiya and the two girls danced with their cousins along to TikTok videos, jumping into the pool with carefree abandon.
Now the bodies of the girls — murdered before their lives had truly begun — cannot be returned to the kibbutz they so loved because Be’eri is a warzone under constant rocket attack from Hamas. The family may transfer their bodies to the kibbutz at a later date but for now at least the mother and her two daughters are together.
