A neighborhood in Gaza City hit by an Israeli airstrike lies in rubble, Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. Israel has launched intense airstrikes in Gaza after the territory’s militant rulers carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel Saturday, killing over 1,000 people and taking captives. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in the airstrikes. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
BACOLOD CITY—The Israeli government will provide pensions and other benefits to the families of the Negrense caregiver and three other overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) killed in attacks by Hamas militants.
Consul Moti Cohen on Thursday delivered the message from Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss to the family of Loreta Alacre at her home in Barangay Cadiz Viejo, Cadiz City, Negros Occidental.
Cohen said Israel has a law that grants pension and other benefits to families of victims of hostile actions.
The family of Alacre and the other OFWs killed in Israel, he said, will be given the same benefits granted to Israeli citizens.
Alacre, 49, was the breadwinner of her family. She has seven siblings and 11 nieces and nephews, four of whom she was sending to college.
“Loreta was the family breadwinner and will continue to do so even in death with the help from the Israeli government,” said Cadiz Mayor Salvador Escalante.
The Israeli ambassador, in his letter, said “we would like to express our deepest sympathy and condolences for the loss of Ms. Loreta who was murdered by the Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7.”
“Unfortunately, she joined the big Israeli family of victims of terror,” he said.
The ambassador told the Alacre family that they are entitled to financial and other assistance from the Israeli government.
Fluss said the embassy of Israel will assist them in availing such benefits from the Israel Social Security Institute.
Cohen said aside from visiting the family to express the condolences of the Israeli people, he informed them of the assistance due them.
Cohen said the Alacre family was the first they visited as the remains of the other slain OFWs have yet to arrive.
Alacre will be buried at the Caduha-an cemetery in Cadiz City on Nov. 5.
Alacre, along with her Chinese boyfriend, were killed in the Hamas attack as she was returning to the house of her employer in Israel after a day off on Oct. 7.
Deeply appreciated
The sacrifices made by several Filipino caregivers in Israel to protect their wards were deeply appreciated by the Israeli Ambassador to Manila, who said such efforts created an “eternal bond” between the people of the two countries especially at a time of war.
The story of Camille Jesalva, the 31-year-old caregiver who gave the meager savings she had to Hamas militants to protect her 95-year-old ward from being kidnapped during the Oct. 7 sneak assault in Israel, was an amazing story of “heroism” by Filipinos in the ongoing war between Israel and the Islamic militant group, Fluss said.
“Our appreciation to the OFWs who are in Israel, who are staying with their employers, with the patients, with the elderly to take care of them. And we would like to say thank you very much,” Fluss said at an online press briefing on Friday.
Fluss was amazed by how Jesalva was able to remain calm to successfully negotiate with the Hamas militants who barged into her employer’s home, considering both of them could have been killed as was the case with other Filipino caregivers during the attack.
READ: Envoy ‘disturbed’ on pro-Palestine Filipinos burning Israel flag during protest
When Palestine militants barged into the house of Nitza Hefetz’s, Jesalva’s ward, she stopped Hefetz and the men from fighting and offered her small savings of $370 (P21,000) in exchange for not hurting them.
The militants accepted Jesalva’s offer and after the men left, she took Hefetz to a safe room in the house where they hid for two hours until Israeli authorities arrived to rescue them.
“This is an amazing story of heroism of a human being who was able to save. A Filipina, who was able to save her employer. I think this is something that is important for us to recognize and to really appreciate and to say thank you to her,” Fluss said. INQ