Eight-year-old Emily was holed up in the bomb shelter of her friend Hila’s house when Hamas terrorists found the two girls – along with Hila’s mum, Raaya. The doors, like those in many kibbutz shelters throughout southern Israel, had no locks, because death was anticipated from the air, not from killers going home to home. “When they arrived, we just opened up, because if we held the door they would have shot and the bullets would have hit us,” recalls Emily.
It was noon on 7 October last year at Be’eri kibbutz, ostensibly a paradise of a farming community for 1,200 Israelis located 50 miles from Tel Aviv and three from Gaza. Emily and Hila had spent the previous night having a sleepover, watching The Vampire Diaries. They woke to a reality much more bloodthirsty.
