'I thought just kill me quickly': Gaza hostage's 54 days in captivity
It was the third time they caught her.
Crouching in a shallow dip in the field, Moran Stella Yanai knew this time was different.
“I heard ‘Coo-coo!’ and we raised our heads up – the terrorists were standing [there], smiling,” she said. “Everyone started to run, I jumped and broke my leg, and they caught me.”
Warning: This article contains details some readers may find disturbing.
Moran had been desperately trying to hide in the sparse cover of a potato field, as Hamas gunmen raided the site of the Nova music festival, a few miles from the Gaza border.
Hours earlier on 7 October, the gunmen had burst through Gaza’s perimeter fence, attacking Israeli communities.
Moran had already been caught twice by groups of Hamas followers, she said, but had talked her way out by insisting she was Arab, and not Jewish.
The third time, her captors were different.