Yoav Shimoni along with his sister and grandmother (image credit - Yoav Shimoni)

By Michael Reeve

ISRAEL ATTACK

‘Her bravery and her care’; Yoav Shimoni remembers his grandmother killed by Hamas terrorists Saturday

Oct 12, 2023 | 4:15 PM

KAMLOOPS — When Hamas attacked Israel, they did so indiscriminately, attacking women, children and men of all ages. One of the more than 1,200 brutally murdered since Saturday was Braha Levinson. Her grandson Yoav Shimoni discovered her death via a post made by the terrorist on her Facebook.

“It was a video of her lying on her living room floor, covered in blood, with men with guns standing above her. Her clenching her hands on her chest. At first, I was in a bit of disbelief. I didn’t want to believe it was true,” Shimoni told CFJC News.

He believes they posted the gruesome photo of his grandmother to inflict further pain across the globe.

“I think it was a deliberate act of terrorism. They were not only trying to murder an innocent old woman but also reverberate the damages and traumatize the entire family and everyone who knew her. And unfortunately, they succeeded,” said Shimoni.

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Even in her final hour, Yoav’s grandmother was more focused on the safety of her family than her own.

“She was just such a pillar of support for everyone, not just her family, but her community. And up until her last moments when she was confirming the safety of my mom and my aunt above her’s,” said Shimoni as he fought back tears. “And that is what I would want her to be remembered by — her bravery and her care.”

Shimoni had just visited his grandmother in Israel a short few weeks ago for Rosh Hashanah, and his parents remain in the country today lending aid

“They are currently in the south of Israel, in Eilat, helping all of the victims and all of the people who managed to escape — not only from my grandmother’s kibbutz but all the surrounding area to the Gaza Strip that was also affected and went through the attacks,” added Shimoni.

He hopes to help his parents move to Canada in the future — a safer country, but still a country with some residents who showed support for the attacks with rallies taking place over the weekend.

“I just fear that it will escalate. The leaders of Hamas are pushing people to kill Israelis abroad. I don’t know if you have seen the recent message where they have encouraged people to start killing Israelis abroad on Friday, (October) 13th,” said Shimoni speaking of the so-called ‘Day of Rage.’

Shimoni did say he feels safe here in the Kamloops area. Most importantly, he wanted to stress the difference between Palestine and the Hamas terrorists who killed his grandmother.

“It’s important for the Canadian people to understand that this isn’t a war between the Israelis and the Palestinians, if that was the case the entire of the West Bank at the north of Israel would be in flames right now. This is a specific war between Hamas and Israel — Hamas which is a terrorist group, that is recognized by Canada as such. Hamas is an organization that has pledged in it’s covenant to kill all the Jews not to liberate Palestinians, to kill all the Jews,” stressed Shimoni.

Anti-Semitism runs deep, with anti-Jewish incidents up 300 per cent in the UK alone since the Hamas attack. Shimoni believes innocent Palestinians will be caught in the ongoing crossfire and attention must remain squarely on Hamas.

“There is no justification for the actions that were taken in the past few days. There is no justification for chanting for the death of people. There is no justification for the chanting and cheering of the beheading of children, the rape of women and the kidnapping of elderly,” said Shimoni.