An Israeli television news reporter whose younger sister was butchered by Hamas terrorists at a trance music rave near the Gaza Strip border earlier this month returned to the airwaves over the weekend and paid tribute to her departed 22-year-old sibling, Noa Zender.
Hen Zender, 35, a field reporter for Israel’s Channel 13 news station, was reporting live on the air on Sunday from the coastal town of Ashkelon, a frequent target of rockets and missiles fired by Gaza-based Hamas terrorists.
“I’m standing here for my Noa,” Zender said during the live broadcast on Sunday.
Zender on Sunday emerged from the “shiva” — or seven-day mourning period under Jewish law — for her sister, Noa Zender, who was one of scores of youngsters massacred by armed Hamas terrorists in Re’im, a kibbutz that lies just a few miles from the fence that rings the Gaza Strip.
At least 1,400 Israelis were killed in the morning hours of Oct. 7 when Hamas gunmen staged a surprise assault across the Gaza border using paragliders and bulldozers.
Terrorists overran Israeli kibbutzim and towns near the Gaza frontier, slaughtering soldiers, men, women, and children and taking scores hostage.
The horrific attack prompted an Israeli aerial bombing campaign as well as a massing of troops in anticipation of a ground offensive that officials say is aimed at destroying Hamas.
“The decision to get back to work and to report from the field was an easy one,” Zender said during her live shot from Ashkelon on Sunday.
“It was a matter of time because I knew this was something I needed to do first and foremost for myself and also for Noa,” she said.
The Zender family waited an agonizing number of days before they were told the horrific news of Noa’s murder.
Hen Zender said that she and her family have spent the past two weeks “adjusting to a new life” marked by “a broken heart” and “a very big void in each and every one of us.”
“Just as we learn to adjust to a new, horrible reality, this enormous nightmare that we are faced with, many other families in Israel are dealing with the same thing,” Zender said.
The veteran journalist said that her younger sister “really loved what I was doing” and “was proud of my career accomplishments in television and in the news business.”
“One of the things that she would have really wanted me to do is to come back and do what I love, what fulfill me, what will enable me to cope with such a complicated situation,” Zender said.
She said that Noa “is always with me and with each and every one of us.”
Zender paid tribute to her sister as “someone who knew how to conquer the world, knew how to make people happy.”
“She danced and enjoyed herself at that party until her last moment,” Zender said of her sister.
“The circumstances are tragic and difficult and the pain will be with us our entire lives, but when we look at photos of her, she never stopped smiling,” she said.
“We swore to choose life.”
This story originally appeared on NYPost
