By David Parsons, ICEJ Vice President & Senior Spokesman
The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem has a long-standing relationship with our good friend Shai Hermesh, a former Knesset member. In fact, Shai credits the ICEJ with saving his life some ten years ago when he ducked into a bomb shelter we had placed in his home community of Kfar Aza during a rocket barrage from Gaza. Shai recently managed to escape harm yet again when he survived the horrific Hamas-led massacre of October 7.
We had just seen Shai two days before when the ICEJ took some 700 Christians on a solidarity visit to the Gaza border area near the end of our week-long Feast of Tabernacles celebration. At a rally that day in the high school of the Sha’ar HaNegev regional council, Shai delivered a warm welcome greeting to our Feast pilgrims alongside mayor Ofir Libstein.
Two days later, we awoke to rocket alarms in Jerusalem and across Israel. As the minutes passed that morning, more and more upsetting news emerged from the Gaza border. At 8:00 AM, ICEJ President Dr. Jürgen Bühler called our friend Ofir Lipstein to check if he was okay. His phone did not answer. Not long after, he was the first named casualty of the unfolding Hamas pogrom.
Jürgen also tried and failed to reach Shai Hermesh. Not long after, he received a recorded phone message through a mutual friend with the desperate voice of Shai Hermesh speaking from his safe room in Kfar Aza. Somehow, he and his wife managed to hide as outside Hamas terrorists were slaughtering many of his neighbours. After 20 hours in their safe room, they were finally able to escape to safety in the middle of the night.
Ten days later, we caught up with Shai at a kibbutz in central Israel, where many of the Kfar Aza survivors were being sheltered. Here is a partial transcript of our interview with Shai on how he survived that day.
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