Kibbutz Nir Oz/Israel: In an incident of miracle degree, an elderly lady of age 90 claimed to have saved her own life in Israel during a Hamas ground operation at her home after she told the attackers that she was from where Lionel Messi belongs. UHN Plus, a Spanish media, reported the story on X, in which the old lady told the armed Hamas men who broke into her house that she came from the country of the legendary footballer.
A 90-year-old Argentine woman avoided being kidnapped by Hamas members in Israel thanks to mentioning Messi, which led one of the attackers to take a photo with her and then leave.
— All About Argentina 🛎🇦🇷 (@AlbicelesteTalk) March 7, 2024
The woman said: "I'm from where Messi is from..." Then the attacker took a photo with her and… pic.twitter.com/I4n32WeRap
The Hamas attackers broke into the lady's Esther Cunio house during the Hamas offensive into Israel on October 7 last year, which allegedly triggered the deadly war in Gaza that has killed around 30,800 people there, mostly women and children.
According to the news house, not only was the woman left alive, but one of the militants possessed her in a short video clip in which she held his rifle. The news portal shared screenshots of the video on X.
The Times of Israel reported that Hamas took eight members of her family as hostages. Though some of her family members were released in a truce deal, her grandchildren and one of their partners are still in Gaza. Now, Cunio is to be featured in a documentary focusing on the Hamas attack. The documentary is titled "Voces de 7 de octubre - Latino Stories of Survival", and is still under production.
According to Cunio's narrative, two Hamas militants knocked at her doors on October 7. When a conversation grew between her and the adversaries, she asked them if they watched soccer (football). When one of them nodded in affirmative, she told them that she was from where Messi belonged.
Then one of them replied that he liked Messi and got excited about hearing the legend's name. He then made her pose with his rifle, Cunio recounted, and a victory sign for the video.
Now, she wishes that by recounting the entire episode in the documentary, Messi would know it was because of him she saved her neck that day.