Rachel Edri’s story of survival

When five terrorists invaded Rachel Edri’s home in Ofakim on October 7, 2023, the Israeli grandmother used her wits to save herself and her husband, David, by engaging them with food, conversation and song – buying time until their dramatic rescue nearly 20 hours later. Incredibly, Rachel’s son Evyatar, an experienced police officer, was among the rescue team.
Rachel and Evyatar shared their remarkable story of survival in Melbourne at an event hosted by WIZO Victoria and St Kilda Hebrew Congregation on June 15.

Rachel recounted in Hebrew that she used basic Arabic, learned from her Iranian-born parents, to talk with the terrorists, offering them coffee, biscuits, Coke Zero and home-cooked meals. At one point, Rachel treated a wounded terrorist, bandaging his hand.

“My mum said that she wasn’t afraid, because if they didn’t shoot at her at the very first second, that meant that she can survive. And she looked above, and she’s said that she felt God,” Evyatar related.

Rachel had the audience of around 500 laughing when she described how she fed the terrorists old cookies hoping they would choke.

“She made cookies for Yom Kippur a week before, and she was all the time about to throw it to the garbage because it was dry. She’s saying God told her to not throw it … and she gave those cookies to the terrorists. My mum really hoped that maybe they will choke, but they didn’t,” Evyatar explained.
After nearly 20 hours, Israeli special forces stormed the house. Evyatar assumed his parents would be killed in the raid but they were safely rescued around 2am on October 8. Rachel has since become a pop icon for her bravery and this year lit the flame for Israel’s independence.