A Brandeis professor says his daughter and son-in-law were killed while shielding their 16-year-old son from Hamas gunfire

• A Brandeis professor said his daughter and son-in-law were killed by gunfire from Hamas militants.
• Ilan Troen said his daughter and son-in-law were shielding his grandson from the bullets.

A Brandeis professor said his daughter and son-in-law lost their lives after shielding their teenage son from Hamas gunfire.

"The terrorists came into their place, broke through the doors, shot them," Ilan Troen, an Israel studies professor at Brandeis University, told Boston television station WBZ-TV in a story published on Sunday.

Troen told WBZ-TV that his daughter and son-in-law, Deborah and Shlomi Matias, were killed by militants from Hamas, a Palestinian political and military group, when they attacked Israel on Saturday. Troen told the television station that he was also in Israel during the attacks.

"They made sure to fall on him and thereby saved his life," Troen said of his grandson. "Although a bullet actually entered his abdomen, but he was saved."

Troen told WBZ-TV that he has seen his 16-year-old grandson Roten, who is now recovering from his injuries at a hospital in Southern Israel.

"My grandson Rotem is recovering and will probably be on his feet today," Troen told Insider. "The bullet did not go deeply into the abdomen because it probably passed through his mother first."

Troen also told Insider he thinks Hamas' actions "was not a 'mere' attack," but a pogrom — a violent attack on Jewish people.

"That is this well-rehearsed and planned act of unbridled violence was not the consequence of an individual's madness or evil but the product of a government that some give public recognition," Troen said of Hamas.

A Brandeis University spokesperson said in a statement to WBZ-TV that they were "deeply saddened to learn that Professor Troen has lost his daughter and son-in-law in the tragic events that are currently taking place in Israel."

"Ilan, a Brandeis alumnus, and his family have long been treasured members of the Brandeis community, and we hold Ilan, his wife Carol, and his entire family in our thoughts," the statement continued."We condemn in the strongest way terrorism such as we have seen today perpetrated against innocent civilians."

On Saturday, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, firing thousands of rockets from Gaza.

Palestinian militants infiltrated Israeli territory by land and sea. Some even used motorized paragliders as the attacks continued.

Israel declared a "state of war" on Sunday, with officials saying their goal was to eliminate Hamas and take complete control of Gaza. The US said it would deploy one of its carrier strike groups to Israel's coast on the same day.

The last major war between Israel and Hamas occurred in 2014. That conflict left 2,200 Gaza residents dead.

Representatives for Brandeis University did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Editor's note: October 9, 2023 — This story has been updated with comments from Troen.