The Miracle Survival of Perach Pilo: 48 Hours Under Terrorist Siege in Be’eri

We have all heard — and will never forget, about the horrific massacre that took place at Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7. Yet amid the tragedy, many miracles also occurred. One of them is the survival story of Perach Pilo, who managed to survive inside her safe room for 48 hours while a squad of terrorists tried nonstop to break in.

In an interview, Perach recalled that at 6:30 on Shabbat morning, the siren sounded in Be’eri. She entered her safe room and brought a blanket from her bed. Soon after, she received a message through the kibbutz’s app warning residents that terrorists were approaching and instructing everyone to lock themselves inside their safe rooms. “That’s when the nightmare began,” she said.

Perach described the terrifying moments: “Within minutes, messages started flooding our community groups: friends writing, ‘They’re shooting here,’ ‘There are terrorists in this house,’ ‘There are wounded inside,’ and one woman wrote, ‘Please, someone get to my mother quickly, they’re killing her.’ I was alone in the safe room, panicking, thinking they were coming to kill me.”

Faith and Prayer

At that point, Perach turned to God in gratitude: “I sat on the bed, took a deep breath, and began repeating a mantra for about 48 hours straight: ‘Thank You, God. Thank You, Hashem. Thank You, Creator of the world. Thank You for Your angels. Thank You to the Lubavitcher Rebbe and his chassidim around the world who are praying for me. Thank You so much.’”

Her daughter and son-in-law are Chabad chassidim. Perach remembered that in the safe room she had an emergency kit with a picture of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and a small Chitat (a book containing Chumash, Tehillim, and Tanya). “I groped around in the dark until I found it, held it close to my body, and said to the Rebbe, ‘You’re protecting me. Don’t leave my side.’”

She also discovered a bottle of water and a pack of tea biscuits, rationing them carefully — two sips of water and two biscuits at a time. Meanwhile, outside was hell. Terrorists drilled at the safe room door, tried to blow it open, and attempted to shatter the window. For nearly 40 hours, the attempts did not stop. “Every minute was a miracle,” she said.

Years earlier, Perach had asked her daughter to install a lock on the safe room door, because she felt uneasy. That lock prevented the terrorists from breaking in and ultimately saved her life.

Fighting for Survival

Her son, who lives near Be’eri, called and told her he was coming to rescue her. “After a few minutes, he asked me to send him my location. I sent it, and later he said, ‘Mom, I’ve joined a Duvdevan unit with three tanks — we’re on our way to get you.’ Meanwhile, the terrorists kept pounding my safe room with explosives. From the window I could hear someone shouting in Arabic, ‘Narcissus, come out! Come out!’ I crouched down and kept repeating: ‘Thank You, God. I am protected. Thank You, Creator of the world.’ All the while, my entire safe room was shaking from the blasts.”

After 48 hours, suffocating and unable to breathe, Perach climbed out the window and jumped. “I don’t know how I got there. I think a higher power lifted me onto the window. I jumped out, barefoot, barely clothed, barely able to stand, and began walking slowly toward the gate. It was quiet — I saw no one, so I kept going.”

On the way, she found a large bottle of mineral water. “I thanked God and drank half the bottle. Then I came across a golf cart with the key in the ignition, and more water inside. Again, I thanked God for providing for me every step of the way. Finally, I reached the soldiers at the kibbutz gate, but the whole time I was worried about my son.”

It turned out her son had stayed behind and fought alongside the soldiers. “He wanted to reach my safe room, but they told him it was impossible because 12 terrorists were barricaded in my house. For two days, heavy fighting raged between the IDF and the terrorists right over my head. Somehow the soldiers didn’t realize I was still inside, and so no one came to rescue me even when things grew quiet.”