Elderly couple abducted by terrorists refused to go to Gaza – and survived

Despite being wounded during Hamas invasion, Diana and Moshe Rosen defied their terrorist captors’ demand to go with them to the Gaza Strip.

By World Israel News Staff

An elderly Israeli couple taken hostage by Arab terrorists during the Hamas invasion of southern Israel managed to defy their captors and live to tell the tale.

Diana Rosen and her husband Moshe, residents of Nir Yitzhak, a kibbutz near the Gaza frontier, were both shot and wounded by terrorists, after their town was overrun early Saturday morning.

The couple were eventually taken hostage by marauding terrorists, but refused to go with them to Gaza.

Days later, the two recalled the harrowing events in an interview with Channel 12, conducted at their bedside in Jerusalem’s Hadassah Mount Scopus Medical Center.

“We are used to this nightmare, but very quickly we understood that this was a different kind of event,” Moshe said. “At a certain point, there was a notification that terrorists had entered the community.”

“We heard loud knocking on the front door. I said to Diana, ‘They are inside the home; they are here.’”

Diana and Moshe managed to lock themselves in their safe room, preventing the terrorists from forcing their way in.

Eventually, however, the terrorists shot the locking mechanism open, wounded the couple in their hands.

Five terrorists rushed into the safe room, seizing the couple and forcing them out of their house.

Walking towards the Gaza border, Moshe and Diana saw the border fence had been breached in multiple places.

“They told us to be quiet and indicated with a hand to the throat that if we speak it will be the end of us,” Moshe continued.

“We dared to tell the terrorists that we simply aren’t going to Gaza.”

Moshe said that he used English words to explain their refusal to enter Gaza.

“We told them we are injured, bleeding, and need to go to a hospital. Of course, their leader didn’t accept that. I said to him ‘ambulance, hospital,’ and he said ‘Gaza.’”

Eventually, the terrorists told Moshe and Diana: “Okay, go,” in English.

“We turned around and walked. During those long moments, we feared they would shoot us. We didn’t turn around to see what he was doing.”