Wife of Terror Victim Recalls Facing Attackers

by Danny Brenner

 

"The terrorists searched for me so that they could murder me too. They stood only feet away, speaking Arabic. I heard them breathing. I saw death before my eyes, but they didn't see me and left," terror attack survivor Monique Ofer tells Israel Hayom.       

"I did not just love him. I looked up to him," Monique Ofer says of her late husband Sraya who was killed by terrorists in October | Photo credit: Moshe Shai

                                                                                                       

In an exclusive interview with Israel Hayom, Monique Ofer recreated the terrifying moments leading to her husband Sraya's brutal murder seven months ago and her own heroic escape from the two axe-wielding terrorists looking for her.

Sraya Ofer, 62, was a retired Israel Defense Forces colonel. He had lost his brother Maj. Yitzhak Ofer, a pilot in the Israeli Air Force, when his helicopter was shot down near the Golan Heights during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

Sraya was killed on October 11, 2013, exactly 40 years after the loss of his beloved brother. Two Palestinian terrorists from Hebron came to Sraya and Monique's house at Brosh Habika in the Jordan Valley. The two terrorists attacked Sraya with axes, striking him 44 times and killing him. Monique, who saw the terrorists assaulting her husband from the kitchen, ran out the front door into the night and for more than two hours, crawled slowly toward Route 90 with only one goal -- to get help and save her husband.

"I ran, fell, crawled, fell again and was injured," Monique recalled. "I dragged myself toward the gate. My knee was hurt, blood flowed like water and at one point I hid behind a concrete block near the gate."

Monique suffered serious injuries to her knee and had to go through multiple surgeries and a long recovery. She still requires crutches to walk. "The terrorists searched for me so that they could murder me too. I lay frozen inside a thorny bush. They stood only feet away, speaking Arabic. I heard them breathing. I saw death before my eyes, but they did not see me and left," she said.

In the article which will be published in Israel Hayom's weekend edition, Monique described the information she told Shin Bet investigators that helped them identify the two suspects in the murder. The two are currently be tried at the Samaria Military Court.

Monique recalled her life with Sraya, known as "Little Yaya" by his friends. Sraya was a legendary fighter and officer in the IDF, he was one of the founders of the air force's Shaldag special forces unit, a commander of the Sayeret Shaked commando unit, deputy commander of the Givati Brigade and had led IDF forces in the Gaza Strip.

"I didn't just love Yaya, I looked up to him. For me he was never Little Yaya, but Yaya the Great. He was a friend, my protector and my support," Monique said.

 
Danny Brenner

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=17499

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