Chilling newly released video appears to show the moment a heroic off-duty Israeli soldier tossed hand grenades back at Hamas terrorists after they threw them inside a crowded bomb shelter, where he was eventually killed.
Staff Sgt. Aner Shapira, 22, was among a group of Israelis attending the Tribe of Nova music festival who fled to the shelter in Kibbutz Re’im on Oct. 7 when Hamas launched its invasion of the Jewish state.
Shapira’s mother has told Kan News that her son stood near the shelter’s entrance to protect the roughly 30 people who hunkered down inside.
“He stood at the entrance, and threw the grenades out and he managed to save so many people,” she said in Hebrew.
A four-minute dash cam video posted Tuesday by the South First Responders group on Telegram shows the terrorists tossing a grenade into the shelter before a man runs.
They are then seen opening fire at the fleeing Israeli, who apparently was killed.
The terrorists also are seen apparently firing a rocket-propelled grenade at the structure while spraying it with bullets and also throwing hand-held grenades.
As they do so, Shapira tosses at least seven of the unexploded grenades back at them as they run for cover, the video shows.
The soldier eventually suffered fatal injuries when a grenade exploded, but not before he saved about seven of the other Israelis inside the shelter, according to the Times of Israel.
“Shapira eventually died of wounds sustained while holding off the terrorists, as he fought to save the lives of his fellow party-goers,” South First Responders said Tuesday.
“Some of those he shielded survived the shelter attack to tell his heroic story,” the group added.
During the incident, Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, was seen looking dazed and shocked moments after the terrorists blew off his arm in the attack.
His parents, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, have said they are determined to bring their son home.
They recently paid tribute to Shapira’s bravery.
“He’s the real hero,” Goldberg said.
Shapira was the great-grandson of Haim Moshe Shapira, a former Israeli minister who signed Israel’s Declaration of Independence.
In 1957, he was reportedly injured when a Jewish immigrant tossed a grenade into an Israeli government building.