Israel welcomes heroic Mumbai nanny

The Indian woman who saved a Jewish child during the Mumbai terror attacks nearly two years ago is set to become an Israeli citizen within a year.

Israel’s interior Minister Eli Yishai has offered Sandra Samuel temporary residential status, the first step towards permanent citizenship. He called it a necessary “humanitarian move” to help Ms Samuel stay in Israel.

Ms Samuel was a nanny for Israeli-born Rabbi Gavriel Holztberg and his wife Rivka when Islamist terrorists attacked the Mumbai Chabad centre in 2008 in a murderous rampage.

The rabbi and his pregnant wife were killed in the two-day long attack but their infant son Moshe survived, thanks to Ms Samuel finding a route out of the besieged house.