A 19-year-old recently-enlisted Israeli soldier texted her loved ones Saturday to say she was injured during a surprise Hamas attack on her military base near Gaza — and that a terrorist was closing in on her hiding place.
Cpl. Naama Boni, serving in the 77th Battalion of the Armored Corps, was at her post when Palestinian gunmen overwhelmed the Zikim military base in the city of Kiriyat Arba early Saturday morning, reported the Israeli news outlet Ynet.
After finding a temporary shelter from the carnage, Boni got on her phone to tell her friends and family what was happening.
“I deeply care for all of you. I have a head injury, and a terrorist nearby might start shooting at me,” she texted. “I am currently with an injured soldier from the Golani Brigade, and there are no reinforcements available.”
In another update, the 19-year-old soldier described the harrowing situation unfolding around her.
“There is terrorist here who won’t go away. I can hear someone screaming, and there appears to be a human casualty,” she wrote.
Her aunt, Shmirit Ilook, told Ynet that her niece was stationed at the entrance to the base when the terrorists struck after arriving by sea.
“At around 7:30 a.m. she was still sending us messages about the terrorists shooting at her, after which she no longer responded,” Ilook said.
As the day unfolded, Boni’s distraught family members frantically began making phone calls trying to find her. Eventually, they were told that the servicewoman was hospitalized at Brazilai Medical Center, but no one would tell them what her condition was.
“We desperately wanted to believe she was still alive, but when the notifications officer showed up at her parents, we knew she just became a statistic,” Ilook said,
Boni was born and raised in the city of Afula and enlisted in the Israeli army just 7 months ago, after graduating from high school.
Ilook said the family had just celebrated her niece’s 19th birthday a week ago.
Boni is among at least 1,200 Israelis who have died in the Hamas attacks, including 155 soldiers, Israeli military officials said. Another 2,900 people have been wounded, and a further 150 have been taken hostage by the gunmen.
In Gaza, 1,055 people have been killed as a result of Israel’s retaliatory attacks, according to authorities there.