TEL AVIV, Israel—The fifth Canadian citizen confirmed dead in the Hamas attack on Israel threw himself onto a grenade to save his girlfriend, his mother said on Sunday.
Ayelet Shachar-Epstein said her 21-year-old son, Netta Epstein, was sheltering with his girlfriend in a safe room at the Kfar Aza kibbutz when Hamas gunmen somehow broke inside.
They shot him and tossed the explosive at the couple but Epstein smothered it with his body, his mother told Global News. His girlfriend, Irene Shavit, survived and was later rescued.
Epstein was born in Israel but had Canadian citizenship through his grandmother, who was born in Montreal, said his mother, also a Canadian. He served in the Israel Defence Force until August.
“It’s really important that the world knows what we went through,” Shachar-Epstein said. “The people that live on our kibbutz are peace-loving people that hold their hands out for peace.”
“And what’s been done to us is slaughter.”
Israeli-Canadian Netta Epstein, 21, and his mother Ayelet Shachar-Epstein.
Family Handout
Shachar-Epstein also survived the Oct. 7 attack by hiding in a different safe room at Kfar Aza. But her mother, son, and two brothers-in-law were among the 70 killed at the kibbutz that day. A nephew is missing.
After the alarms first sounded at the kibbutz near the Gaza border at around 6:30 that morning, Shachar-Epstein messaged her son on WhatsApp, and they kept in touch until he died.
The following is a condensed transcript of their messages:
Mother: Grandmother was shot and she is killed.
Son: Ok. What was she killed from? Was it a rocket or was it terrorists?
Mother: It was terrorists.
Son: F**k.
Mother: The remnants of the bullet is next to her.
Son: Ok. Help grandpa.
Ayelet Shachar-Epstein, left, mother of Netta Epstein, with daughter Rona.
Stewart Bell/Global News
Mother: How about you?
Son: We’re hanging in there.
Mother: Is Irene afraid?
Son: Both of us are afraid.
Mother: Of course you are. ❤️❤️❤️ I love you my boy.
Son: ❤️
Mother: Call me now.
Netta Epstein, 21, and his mother, Ayelet Shachar-Epstein.
Family Handout
Son: What’s happening. Write to me.
Mother: Ofir [his uncle, who was the mayor of the municipality] is killed.
Son: Ya daddy already wrote to me. How did it happen? Do you know?
Mother: It was a terrorist that shot him.
Son: Mommy what’s happening? Give us a report.
Mother: We’re in the safe room, it’s locked. Did you lock?
Son: Yes.
Netta Epstein, 21, left.
Family Handout
Mother: Terrorists entered the house next door. And could be in the house across the street.
Son: I know.
Mother: Are they shooting in your neighbourhood?
Son: Yes and there’s yelling in Hebrew and there’s massive shooting and there’s a car that’s beeping all the time and I don’t understand what’s going on. They’re outside my apartment.
Mother: Ok my sweetheart just hold Irene tightly. I love you. The soldiers are on the way to you.
Son: We still hear them.
Unable to reach her son, Shachar-Epstein instead messaged his girlfriend’s phone. Her son responded, but then she lost contact with him again.
When she finally got through, the girlfriend wrote: He’s been shot by a shotgun and there was a grenade and I’m hiding under the bed.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
