Young British Jewish women are ready to risk their lives, travelling to Israel to fight Hamas on the frontlines
- At least 100 people have travelled from the UK to Israel to fight on the front line
Young British Jewish women last night said they are ready to risk their lives after volunteering to join Israel’s war on terror.
At least 100 people have travelled from the UK to Israel to fight, with many more dual nationals living in Israel or elsewhere in the world signing up for reserve duty in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
Moriah Mencer, 21, ripped up her plans to travel the world and instead caught a flight from Britain to Israel after learning that her friend Tiferet Lapidot, 23, was missing following the Hamas terror attack.
Tragically, it later emerged Tiferet was among the 260 revellers massacred by gunmen at the Supernova music festival in southern Israel on October 7.
Speaking exclusively last night, Moriah said: ‘I can’t stand back and not help. As much as I feel British, I feel Israeli and this is my country. If we don’t protect Israel now we won’t have anywhere. It’s not only fighting terror, we’re fighting for our existence.’
Moriah finished her two-year army duty five months ago, training a unit of female combat soldiers in firearms. She was visiting family in Britain and planning to travel to Australia, Thailand and South America when Hamas attacked.
Moriah Mencer, 21, ripped up her plans to travel the world and instead caught a flight from Britain to Israel
Sidonie, who asked not to reveal her surname, is a medical student who was born in London and was studying medicine in Cyprus
After hurriedly volunteering to rejoin the IDF, she is now preparing to be deployed to Israel’s northern front, where troops are braced for an attack from southern Lebanon by Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah. She will work in a surveillance unit, detecting terrorist incursions across the border and incoming missile or drone attacks.
‘Just to hear what was happening, I couldn’t stay in England,’ she said. ‘We have one country that belongs to the Jewish people – only one place where we feel safe.
‘This is our home and you feel you have to step up any way you can. Everyone here knows at least one person who’s in the IDF, knows someone who has been kidnapped or killed and in spite of everything, I feel safer here even than in the UK with the anti-Semitism we are seeing on the rise there.’
It was initially feared that Tiferet had been kidnapped and imprisoned in Gaza but her family later discovered she was among those killed at the festival.
Moriah last week joined 1,000 at Tiferet’s funeral, one of hundreds in towns and villages across Israel.
Another volunteer, dual British-Israeli national Sidonie, 26, was flying to Israel when Hamas attacked. Hers was one of the last flights to land before Israeli airspace shut.
Sidonie, who asked not to reveal her surname, is a medical student who was born in London and was studying medicine in Cyprus.
Moriah last week joined 1,000 at Tiferet’s (pictured) funeral, one of hundreds in towns and villages across Israe
Like Moriah, she had completed her mandatory two years military service with the IDF and she immediately contacted her former commander when Hamas struck.
She is now serving as an officer at Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv, which is treating dozens of the wounded.
‘We had a few critical patients who went straight into the trauma unit, including a soldier of 25. A grenade exploded on him in a gunfight with Hamas,’ she said. ‘There have been a lot of gunshot wounds in soldiers who came face- to-face with Hamas. I’m a medical student so it wasn’t as traumatising for me to see the injuries but the overwhelming needs of the families coming in has been very difficult.
‘I have a family in the critical care unit and I think that getting the news that their son might not wake up was the hardest. It hit me because he was my first, and unfortunately he will not be not my last.
‘Moving to Cyprus for my studies was very difficult. Israel is home. I don’t want to leave knowing that my country is at stake.’
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