BEIT SHEMESH, Israel — Orian Elimelech, a high school student, initially found solace in an underground shelter located near a synagogue.
Accompanied by a Torah in the bunker of the historic town nestled between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Orian was taken by surprise when the air raid sirens blared on March 1.
Suddenly, everything plunged into darkness.
“I consider myself quite religious,” remarked Orian, a 16-year-old, in an interview with The Post. “At least, I used to be.”
Orian, along with her two younger brothers, survived a direct missile hit on their shelter, a catastrophic event in the ongoing conflict with Iran that claimed the lives of her mother and grandmother instantly.
In an exclusive interview with The Post, Orian recounted the harrowing day she refers to as “the tragedy.” She shared how her mother, Ronit Elimelech, 45, had hurriedly led her children to the safety of the underground bomb shelter near her parents’ home as soon as the early warning alert was sounded.
With her three kids tucked away in the underground bunker — considered the safest shelter as opposed to above-ground “safe rooms” — Elimelech bolted to bring her mother, Sara Elimelech, 70, to the concrete shelter as sirens blared. But they only made it to the bunker’s entrance.
In an instant, an Iranian ballistic missile the size of a Greyhound bus slammed directly into the bunker just outside of a synagogue, killing nine people — including Elimelech and her mother.
‘I wanted us all together’
Orian recalled how she was scrolling through her phone like a typical teen when it happened. She sustained injuries to her head, neck and legs.
“My eyes were open. We didn’t hear it coming,” she said. “Then I just heard the entire thing falling down on us. I was sitting in a chair and the legs were broken off.”
She then remembered feeling the overwhelming G-forces of the missile, whose shock waves alone destroyed nearby houses and the synagogue.
“It felt like being on like an underground elevator going down very, very fast,” she said.
She then passed out for “about three seconds,” before regaining consciousness and floundering up a ramp with dozens of others to escape what could have been their tomb.
“It was very hard, considering my legs were injured,” she said. “And then I found my siblings, and somebody screamed, ‘there’s a girl with a head injury.’ And then a soldier started to lift me up to carry me into an ambulance.”
She then demanded that emergency workers not leave until her younger brothers — both with special needs — joined her for the trip.
“I didn’t want them to be confused and scared,” she said, with a neck brace still supporting her head. “I wanted us all together.”
It wasn’t until much later that she learned her beloved mother and grandmother had died.
Strong single mother
At first, there was hope — however impossible it was. They could not initially be found after the blast.
“I didn’t believe it. They were so strong,” another family member, the niece and granddaughter of the victims, told The Post. “I wanted to see their bodies, but there was nothing left.“
With three children as a single mother, Elimelech didn’t have a lot of free time, Orian said. Still, she took a year-long EMS course to volunteer with United Hatzalah, a free emergency service that aims to respond to every scene in 90 seconds or less.
She chose to join after her 14-year-old autistic son Itamar became obsessed with the organization after United Hatzalah gave a presentation to his school — and asked her to volunteer for his birthday present.
At her training graduation, she let Itamar be the star, wrapping her newly won official volunteer vest around him, United Hatzalah founder and president Eli Beer said from the organization’s headquarters in Jerusalem.
“After one year of training, she came with her son — she tells me her son is on the spectrum and it was his dream that she join,” Beer said. “She was amazing. She became one of our most active volunteers.”
“It’s such a disaster that a woman who was so involved in saving lives — we found her on the ground,” he added.
Fellow volunteer and first responder Susan Docker said it’s Itamar’s story that particularly hurt, knowing that the special needs teen will have to now “rebuild a relationship” with an absent father who will now be his primary caregiver.
“Just knowing that he and his siblings have been left behind, that’s what breaks my heart,” Docker said. “You know, she died a hero — and they have a legacy. But it’s a long road.”
“Destroy Iran”
Despite their horrid losses, Elimelech’s family said the war on Iran was — and is — absolutely necessary.
“It’s very important that we destroy Iran,” Elimelech’s sister, Etti Bokboza said. “Nobody should have to go through this. That shouldn’t happen.”
Orian agreed, speaking from a safe room in her aunt’s apartment after her interview with The Post was interrupted by another air raid alert.
Asked what she would tell Americans who oppose the war or even blame Israel for “dragging” the US into the conflict, the 16-year-old said such people are “ignorant” about the threats Tehran poses to both her country and the United States.
“They should read a book,” she quipped, picking at her fingernails as she sat on the floor with local TV news in the background — updating Israelis on active strikes like weathermen in a hurricane.
Just 11 days after the strike that destroyed her world, Orian shed no tears during the hourlong interview — exhibiting the strength she spoke of in her mom and grandma.
“I was very close to my mother,” she said. “She was very caring, and she went through very hard things in her life.”
But that doesn’t mean Orian isn’t terrified as air raid alerts continue multiple times a day as the war rages on. As warning sirens rang outside the safe room, she said she felt she was doomed to be killed by a missile.
“Now I know a missile hitting me is inevitable — it’s not something I can stop or be protected from because no matter where I am, it can happen,” she said.
“I thought an underground bomb shelter, that’s the safest place. It should be, but it wasn’t,” the girl added.
