Dallas woman whose two Israeli cousins were killed by Hamas discusses her ongoing anguish
DALLAS — It was the middle of the night on October 7, 2023, and LeElle Slifer of Dallas said she couldn't sleep.
"I opened my phone, and I saw on social media all these pictures of Israel and terrorists jumping out of trucks," said Slifer. "And it just felt very different."
She and her family soon realized her relatives half a world away in Israel had become victims of the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, including some Americans.
"Israel did not start this war, Hamas did," Slifer said. "This cannot be an acceptable act of war to steal innocent civilians from their beds and keep them hostage until your demands are met."
Slifer said her mother's family has lived in Israel and that land for more than 2,000 years.
On October 7, Hamas attacked Kibbutz Be'eri, where Slifer's cousins Eshel and Kinneret Gat lived. Their adult children Carmel and Alon, along with Alon's wife Yarden and their three-year-old daughter Geffen were visiting.
Slifer said the terrorists took Alon, Yarden, and Geffen Gat and put them onto a truck, tied their hands, and started driving them into Gaza.
"Luckily at one point, the car stopped," Slifer said. "They encountered an Israeli tank, and the terrorists got out to investigate. Alon and Yarden looked at each other and they said, 'We have to run.' So, they grabbed Geffen, and they ran out of the car. The terrorists were shooting at them, running behind them. Yarden said, 'I can't hold her.' She passed her daughter onto Alon and said, 'Take her to safety.' He hid with his daughter in a ditch for 12 hours and, thank God, they made it back to the kibbutz the next morning alive and safe. They went back to find Yarden and they couldn't."
Slifer said they learned soon after Yarden Gat had been taken captive in Gaza and was held hostage there.
"Thank God she was released in November with the wave of hostages," said Slifer.
But that was not the case with Carmel and Kinneret Gat. Slifer said Carmel Gat was also taken hostage. Her mother Kinneret was killed.
"Carmel was taken by her body lying lifeless on the street because the terrorists shot her in her own kibbutz right there. She wasn't even wearing shoes."
As for Carmel Gat, Slifer said that they had heard reports she had been alive during the past year. But early last month, the news had suddenly changed.
"I remember it was a Friday, it was Shabbat, and I heard reports that they had found six bodies," Slifer said. "The IDF found six bodies of hostages in Gaza."
Her family's hopes were extinguished.
"Every time you hear reports coming out of Gaza, you think, 'gosh, please, please let it be good news. Please let it be good news,'" said Slifer. "And then, unfortunately, we heard the next day that they found Carmel's body. The terrorists had shot her in a tunnel in Rafah underneath a children's bedroom. I had such hope this entire time. I was so sure that Carmel would come back. I just didn't want to believe it was true that she'd been killed like that. Murdered, executed. They would rather kill Israelis than allow them to be rescued."
Dr. Rafael Medoff, a Jewish historian who has written extensively about the Holocaust and who recently visited Dallas, is now working on a new book to be released next year, "The Road to October 7th." He said the attacks were a horror that was long in the making.
"It's been a terrifying year for American Jews," said Medoff. "First, to watch the images from the Middle East to see the aftermath of the Israeli towns burned, burned to the ground, the victims, the hundreds and hundreds of Israelis who were slaughtered, the victims of the Hamas gang rapes, and of course, the torment of the hostages, the hundreds of innocent Israelis and others who were kidnapped by Hamas and taken to Gaza. Then, the shocking turn of events to see the large numbers of extremists on our college campuses and sometimes in our streets, marching in support of Hamas and denouncing American Jews for daring to sympathize with the Jewish state. This is something that was totally unexpected for most American Jews."
Medoff said the events proved to be more than unnerving for some in the Jewish community.
"For the first time in many years, a significant number of American Jews are beginning to feel as if it's not safe, even here," said Medoff. "That's a new and frightening sentiment. America has always been different."
Slifer said she has experienced the hatred toward Jews first-hand. After going public about her cousin being killed days before being rescued, she received an email.
It's titled 'Zionist pig' and reads, "It's too bad you and the rest of your narcissistic chosen people can't get their head out of their ass to acknowledge over 50 years of illegal occupation stealing land and setting up a fully apartheid state. I'm glad your cousin is dead, and I wish you the same. From the river to the sea. P.S. (expletive), eat poison."
Slifer wasn't impressed.
"My first reaction was I actually laughed," she said. "I thought, 'silly little person, you think that you can impact me with an email like that. I'm going to speak out more because of this email.' It is such anger against a person that they don't even know, to wish death upon me for simply existing. What's more amazing is they don't even know anything about me or my family or the fact that my family has been in Israel for as long as it has, or the fact that my family who was killed was some of the most peace-loving, supportive of the two-state solution people you would ever find."
Slifer believes the rising antisemitism should be condemned, not accepted.
"Unfortunately, I think it's one of the few isms that is tolerated today," said Slifer. "Racism, completely unacceptable. Homophobia, completely unacceptable. But you say you're anti-Zionist, that's completely allowed. But anti-Zionism is simply code for antisemitism."
Amid all the personal angst, Slifer worries the remaining hostages in Gaza are being forgotten.
"There's 100 hostages in Gaza right now," she said. "There are children, the two boys, they're being held hostage. There are Americans still being held hostage in Gaza. Where is the uproar? Where is the whole world coming down on Gaza to say, 'Release the hostages'? I want to scream at everyone and shake everyone because every day I wake up and I think about the hostages, and I think about my family. We have to do something to get these people back. I can't believe that we're not doing more."
She feels compelled to speak out and be a voice for the hostages and the lives taken on and after the October 7 attacks.
"I'm not going to be quiet," Slifer said. "I am going to talk to every single person on this earth about the hostages in Israel. I'm going to stand up for Israel and the Jewish people until my last breath."