News / Israel
Bristol-born mum found ‘cuddled together’ with daughters after Hamas killings
The parents of a Bristol-born woman killed in her home by Hamas alongside her two teenage daughters have spoken of their pain following their murder.
Bodies of Lianne, Noiya and Yahel Sharabi were found “cuddled together” when gunmen stormed their home in Kibbutz Be’eri, Israel, on October 7. The father Eli remains missing.
A text to family members read: “I can hear them. They are here at our house. They are shooting and shouting ‘Die Israel’. Please call for help.”
Gill and Pete Brisley told the BBC the bodies of their daughter and grandchildren had been found by a soldier “all cuddled together with Lianne doing what a mother would do – holding her babies in her arms, trying to protect them at the end”.
Lianne went to Mangotsfield Primary School and grew up in Staple Hill before travelling to Israel to work on a Kibbutz – a place where people live communally and work together.
She later met a man there, going on to learn and become fluent in Hebrew and having two daughters, 13-year-old Yahel and Noiya, 16.
Hundreds of mourners turned out to bury the family of British nationals on Thursday in a cemetery about 25 miles from the Gaza border.
They could not be buried in their hometown as it was destroyed in the massacre.
“All I can think or hope was that it was a quick death,” said Gill. “The one thing that really, really upsets me is to think how scared they must have been. That is terrifying.”
She added: “In the past when anything like [an attack] has happened, the army were up there immediately and they surround the Kibbutz with tanks. I don’t know what went wrong this time.
Pete said: “We now know that Leanne was sending out messages of ‘help’. I can hear Arab voices shouting ‘die Israel’.”
Main photo: family handout
Read next:
- Vigil in solidarity with Israel met with disruption
- Thousands march through Bristol calling for ceasefire in Palestine
- Israel-Hamas war ‘a tragedy that pains our hearts’, says Muslim community
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