The 81-Year-Old Woman Who Climbed Out the Window to Escape Hamas

Stand for Israel  |  February 20, 2024

Jaqueline Glicksman breaks down in tears after seeing her ruined home in Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha for the first time since October 7. She tells The Times of Israel about her escape and her hope that one day she’ll return here to live when it’s possible:

“It hurts that they burned down my house, my life,” she told Channel 12 news. “Nothing is left.”

The elderly widow jumped out of the window of her safe room and ran 1.5 kilometers (almost a mile) to safety as terrorists set fire to her house…

A while later, she heard people scattering something around in the hallway outside the safe room, and realized “they weren’t distributing sweets” and that she was in danger. Just before her home went up in flames, Glicksman, wearing her pajamas and slippers, climbed up onto a dresser, then onto the chest-high window frame, and jumped out of the window.

“You are 81, and you jumped out of this window,” her interviewer asked her, incredulously. “When you’re in a situation like that,” she said, “you act.”