US prof speaks out after daughter murdered by Hamas: Not a war, but 'fanatical' attacks on civilians

An Israeli studies professor spoke out to FOX News after his daughter and son-in-law were killed by Palestinian Hamas militants as they went door-to-door near Be'er Sheva intentionally murdering Israeli civilians.

Ilan Trone, who has taught at Brandeis University and the University of Missouri, said it is a misnomer to call the violent conflict a "war" in the traditional sense, given how his family and hundreds of others in Israel have been affected.

Troen's daughter Deborah and her husband Shlomi barricaded their house, about 25 miles from the Gaza border, after they heard Arabic being shouted outside amid gunfire. Deborah was on the phone with her father when she was killed, but his grandson in the home survived.

"I remember learning the expression 'a war to end all wars’: Don't think of this as a conflict that can be readily ended once-and-for-all. The forces against them are so deep, so fanatical that that's not the possibility. This thing was planned for months and months and months," Troen said.

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He said many people "thoroughly planned [for] and expected" an eventual attack from the Iran-backed Hamas terror group.

He said both Hamas and Iran are well-experienced at hostage-taking, saying that former President Jimmy Carter knows that fact well. Iranian militant students took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held those inside captive for 444 days, until moments after former President Ronald Reagan was sworn-in on January 20, 1981.

On "Outnumbered," Trone said his family have a phone application that notifies them of rockets being fired into Israel, and that he received a call from Deborah in the early morning on the day she was killed.

"We live in the Negev [Desert] on the other side of Be'er Sheva, 45 seconds away from normal rocket fire from Gaza. That means [we have] 45 seconds to descend to our reinforced concrete shelter," he said.

"Debbie informed us that she was hearing glass shattering and she had told us that she could hear Arabic being spoken in the neighborhood around the house and that there was firing. That was the last communication."

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Troen said his grandson and son-in-law were in the house's safe room and tried to secure the door by pushing furniture up against it, only to have Hamas militants blow it with explosives.

He said that situation should give people a sense of how intent Hamas is in murdering civilians rather than engaging in traditional warfare with Israel. By contrast, he noted, Israel and the United States intentionally try not to cause civilian casualties in their military activities.

After his parents were killed, Troen's grandson remained on the phone with him for 12 hours, as they texted back and forth and Troen called on physicians to help him address his wounds via the phone.

"We were on the cell phone with our grandson throughout his entire captivity until he was released by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces)," Troen said, adding that Deborah and Shlomi covered him as Hamas fired into the home, buffering the effects of a single bullet wound to his abdomen.

The grandson arrived at the hospital covered in soot from walking around the house multiple times checking for hidden Hamas terrorists.

"Hamas set fire to all the houses in this neighborhood with the expectation that if anybody survived, they would come running out and then they would shoot them," Troen explained. 

"They didn't want to miss anybody. This was part of the plan. Now, this is not military classical military planning. This is planning that's designed to murder civilians. And that's what they have done. They knew what they were doing. This is not a war to end all wars. They have a sense, an empowerment by a deviant and misguided theology where they believe they're acting out divine will."

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Many Hamas terrorists have indeed been seen on video chanting and shouting "Allahu Akbar" – or "God is great" – as they kidnap people and parade around bloodied Israeli civilians they have raped.

Troen said he believes however that Hamas is not an indicator of all Muslims or Arabs in the region, saying that Israel has peace with the neighboring Hashemite kingdom of Jordan, and its monarch, King Abdullah – and that Israel has forged peace with Egypt.

"So this is a war that was designed by a fanatical group not intending to ending a war except with total victory and the destruction of the Jewish State."

He added that the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem has been in touch with his family following the tragedy.