Woman mourns family lost in village massacre

‘There are no words to describe what we’re facing. He lost his father — I think it tells everything, right?’

LIAT WACHS, Lexington woman mourning estranged husband, brother-in-law, and close friend following attacks on Israel

A Lexington woman has been overwhelmed with grief after losing her estranged husband, his brother, and a close friend to terrorist violence in Israel, and she worries for many loved ones who remain as the country fights back following a devastating weekend attack by Hamas militants.

Liat Wachs moved to the United States eight years ago with her husband, Igal Wachs, who held dual citizenship, and their young son, but her family and close friends still live in Israel — many of them near the Gaza Strip, where Hamas militants launched the attack, she said.

“I have nieces in the army. I have friends that lost their kids. I have a very good friend of mine that died in [an] attack,” she said by phone. “My brother lives literally minutes from all the kibbutz where those horror things happened, and they were just lucky, their village not to be attacked.”

After celebrating Sukkot on Friday night, Wachs awoke Saturday to news of the Hamas invasion and then received a call from her brother, who told her that Igal, 53, and his brother Amit, 48, were dead.

“They went into Netiv HaAsara, which is my village where my husband and his family lives, and they started attacking civilians, and … my husband and his brother were killed,” she said.

Liat Wachs said she and Igal had recently obtained a divorce in rabbinical court but were still legally married in the United States. The loss has devastated her and their 11-year-old son.

“There are no words to describe what we’re facing. He lost his father — I think it tells everything, right?” she said. “We didn’t expect that. I don’t think he’s internalizing what happened yet. He’s very young, and we’re very far away, so it’s very difficult to internalize what’s happening.”

The family came to the United States because Liat Wachs had a job opportunity, she said, and they initially lived in New York before moving to the Boston area.

Wachs still hasn’t been able to reach all her loved ones in Israel, some of whom have lost their cellphones amid the chaos, she said, and she has barely eaten or slept since Saturday.

“You can’t really function,” she said. “I don’t think there is a word for what I’m feeling, to tell you the truth.”

Despite her grief over the violence, which she described as a second Holocaust, Wachs remains steadfast in her belief that Israel will prevail.

“We are a very strong nation, and we will come over it, and we will be stronger,” she said.