Adding further detail, Israeli news station ILTV reported that Chaya was shot in the leg, and that the mother of the two children she protected was killed in the attack, although authorities are yet to release her name.
A report of the incident on The Jerusalem Post read: “Amid the chaos, Chaya spotted two young children and threw herself on top of them to shield them from the bullets flying through the air. She was shot in the leg but remained on top of the children until help arrived, and she was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.”
Reacting to Chaya’s story on X, StandWithUs wrote: “Chaya is a hero, and a reminder to us all to be the light amid the darkness”.
As Jews in Australia and around the world continue to reel from Sunday’s deadly attack, which targeted Jews as they celebrated the first night of Chanukah, new details of pain and heroism are still coming out.
On Wednesday morning, it emerged that the two-month-old baby of Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who was killed in the attack, is in hospital after being struck by shrapnel.
As well as the injury to the British Rabbi’s son, who was born in October, his wife Chayala was grazed by a bullet and spent Sunday night in hospital.
Witnesses reported that Rabbi Schlanger died while shielding his loved ones from the gunfire.
His son is reportedly “not out of the woods” after being hit in the calf by flying shrapnel, according to a close friend of Chayala.
