2023-10-09 12:42:58
Yossi Benayoun celebrates a goal with Liverpool (REUTERS).
The drama that devastated Israel following the Hamas terrorist attack this past weekend has caused hundreds of deaths and terrible stories. One of them has starred Yossi Benayoun, former player for Racing Santander, Liverpool and Arsenal, among others, and current technical director of the Israeli Football Association. According to Ynet Sport, the house where the former player’s sister lives in Be’eri, a city bordering the Gaza Strip, was attacked by four Hamas terrorists.
His brother-in-law, Sharon Shabo, was shot twice in the hand and was able to escape. Meanwhile, his nephew Shaked, who is an officer in the Golan Brigade of the Israeli defense forces, managed to save his family by killing three of the four attackers. The survivor threw a grenade at the house, but the occupants were able to get out. Benayoun himself revealed the tense moments that his family experienced before managing to get to safety. “Please save us,” was the message he received from his nephew at the time of the assault, a communication that put the former soccer player on alert, now calm following knowing that his family is safe.
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“I’m shocked, it was a great miracle. I lived the most difficult day of my life. He had already accepted the fact that everyone was dead. But then a miracle happened thanks to my heroic nephew,” Benayoun confessed. His brother-in-law has already undergone surgery for the two shots he received.
The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, assured this Monday that the Hamas attack on Israel, which has already caused more than 1,200 deaths, is “terrorism, there is no doubt, nor can there be any qualification.” The minister specified that there are currently two Spaniards “who have suffered from this attack” and that his department is in contact with their families, but he did not want to provide more details. “It is information that we are discussing with the families,” he insisted.
Hours later, the identity of both was revealed: it is a Basque resident in a kibbutz and a 19-year-old girl with dual Spanish and Israeli nationality and whose relatives reside in Seville. Pedro Sánchez, on his account on X, formerly called Twitter, followed the same line as the minister. “We follow with dismay the terrorist attack once morest Israel. (…) We strongly condemn terrorism and demand the immediate cessation of indiscriminate violence once morest the civilian population.”
The Israeli Yossi Benayoun, one of the most emblematic players in the recent history of Racing de Santander, retired from football at the age of 38, following more than twenty seasons of professional career. The former Racing midfielder, where he played 104 games and scored 20 goals, left an “indelible memory defending the shield” of the Santander team, according to the Cantabrian club. With the Israeli national team, Benayoun is the player who has recorded the most appearances (102) since he debuted on November 18, 1998. Furthermore, no player has had a longer career with the national team than him (18 years and 325 days), which helped him become the oldest footballer to wear the blue and white jersey, at 37 years and 157 days, precisely, in a match once morest Spain
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