Last Saturday night, exactly eight months after her mother Michal and brother Eitan were killed by an Iranian missile that struck their building in Be'er Sheva, another Iranian missile hit the Tel Aviv apartment of model Eliana Sachs, instantly returning her to the traumatic event from which she has yet to recover.
“There was a direct hit on two buildings next to mine. The blast was terrifying,” she recalls. “I came out of the bathroom and saw glass everywhere in the apartment. Not a single pane remained intact. My partner was lying on the couch covered in shards, but thankfully, he wasn’t injured. The shutters were blown out and everything was in chaos from the blast.”
They tried to flee, she says, but the shock wave had jammed the building’s front door.
“So we jumped from the balcony.”
A few days earlier, she had told a cousin she was deeply worried about the war.
“He laughed and said, ‘Eliana, why are you worried? You can relax, lightning doesn’t strike twice.’ Apparently, lightning never heard that saying,” she says with a faint smile. “I’m someone who believes deeply in people and in the good in life, but it made me wonder: what is the universe trying to tell me? Why would something like this happen to me twice?”
In the strike on the Tel Aviv area that night, Mary Ann de Vera, a 30-year-old Filipino caregiver, was killed. Thirty people were injured, 40 homes were damaged and about 200 residents were evacuated to hotels.
Sachs was also forced to evacuate. For now, she is staying in the apartment of her partner, Itay Agami, 30, in Tel Aviv.
“I can’t go back home yet,” she says. “I’m waiting for the property tax authority to come and repair the damage. There are no windows left and everything inside is black from the blast. Luckily, I managed to grab a bag with a few clothes before they closed off the area.”
'It triggered everything again'
For weeks before the war began, Sachs had already been on edge.
“About a month ago people started talking everywhere about a possible American strike on Iran,” she says. “You couldn’t escape it. It started triggering my anxiety. I was really afraid it would happen to me again.”
She told Agami, “What am I supposed to do? How will I live through this reality again?”
“Everyone promised me it wouldn’t happen again. And then literally I’m experiencing it again.”
She pauses.
“The lucky thing is that I have enough cynicism and love for life to laugh about it sometimes and not completely lose my mind.”
When the first siren sounded Saturday morning, she says, it felt like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
“That night I had a panic attack I hadn’t had in a long time. The sirens, running to shelters, the sound of fighter jets, everything triggered memories. For a few hours it felt like I was reliving that day again. Then, after about three hours, I started to calm down.”
And then, she says, came the explosion.
Just before the blast, she and her partner had been meditating together.
“We said we accept whatever comes to us with love,” she says quietly. “And then a missile arrived.”
Sometimes, she says, it feels as though someone is trying to switch off her light.
“Then I tell myself, ‘Okay, maybe I’m capable of passing these tests.’ I’ve learned to see the things that happen to me as tests. I’m certain life only gives me tests that I’m capable of passing.”
'My mother and brother were in a safe room. It didn’t save them'
Her apartment building has no protected room and no shelter.
“If I want to live in Tel Aviv at a reasonable price, I have to compromise,” she says. “When I rented the apartment, I said, ‘It’s okay, I’ll run to the neighborhood shelter.’ This time we didn’t manage to.”
She shrugs slightly.
“But honestly, it doesn’t really matter. My mom and brother were in an apartment with a safe room and they’re not alive. A safe room won’t necessarily save you from a direct hit.”
'Eliana, they’re dead'
Michal Sachs, 50, and her son Eitan, 18, were killed on June 24, 2025, two hours before a ceasefire took effect during Operation “With a Lion’s Heart.” Eitan’s girlfriend, Noa Boguslavsky, who was with them in the safe room, was also killed.
At the time Eliana was already living in Tel Aviv with a former partner.
They woke early that morning because of a siren. When news reports mentioned missile impacts in Be'er Sheva, she recognized the neighborhood where her parents lived.
“I called to check they were okay,” she says. “Nobody answered, so I went back to sleep.”
When she woke again, she saw a photo on the news of a destroyed balcony swing.
“I recognized it immediately. It was my parents’ balcony.”
She kept calling, but no one answered. Eventually, she and her partner drove south.
“We raced from Tel Aviv to Be'er Sheva. On the way I was trying to understand what had happened. Then I saw the building on Ynet’s Instagram. I shared the picture on my story and wrote: if anyone has seen Michal and Igor Sachs, please contact me.”
When they arrived, they went straight to Soroka Medical Center.
“I had a terrible feeling,” she says.
Inside the hospital, she searched the intensive care unit.
“Then someone shouted, ‘They’re here.’”
She entered the room and saw her father injured, sitting and crying.
“I asked where they were. He stammered in Russian, ‘Eliana, they’re dead.’”
At first, she did not understand.
“I hugged him and he told me they had been in the safe room. After the alert ended, they came out, and he went into the bathroom. Suddenly, he heard the explosion.”
Her father ran out.
“He found my mom and my brother dead. Eitan’s girlfriend had been thrown out the window by the blast.”
Learning to live with the loss
Since then, Sachs says, she has been trying to rebuild her life.
“I’m trying to gather the pieces and learn how to live without them,” she says. “It’s been an incredibly difficult year.”
Shortly after the tragedy, she also went through a breakup after five years in a relationship and moved into her own apartment for the first time.
“I lost a lot of anchors this year. Half of my family disappeared. It’s just my dad and me now.”
Still, she says, she knows she must keep going.
“I’m 24. My life has only just begun. If I allow myself to collapse, I won’t recover. I understood that I have to get back on my feet quickly, for myself and for my father.”
Her father remains in Be'er Sheva, but they speak constantly.
“He’s so proud of everything I do,” she says. “I send him photos from fashion shoots and shows, and he replies, ‘But did you eat?’ He’s taken over the role of my mother.”
'The longing is enormous'
How much does she miss them?
“Every moment of every day,” she says quietly. “The longing is enormous.”
She was especially close to her mother.
“She truly was the best mother in the world. And she’s still with me. In moments when I feel weak I hear her voice telling me, ‘Pull yourself together and go for it.’”
At the shiva, someone who had also lost a loved one told her something she has never forgotten.
“They said grief is a hole in your heart that never disappears. But your heart grows over time, and the hole becomes smaller.”
She pauses.
“I hope my heart grows quickly. Because right now it’s still very hard.”
A life between fashion and technology
Sachs, 24, was born and raised in Be'er Sheva. Her parents immigrated from the former Soviet Union. Her mother ran a nail salon business, while her father works at the Dead Sea Works.
She studied in a gifted program and even completed a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Ben-Gurion University while still in high school.
“I had a Soviet education,” she says with a laugh.
She began modeling at 17 and has since appeared in campaigns for fashion brands including Factory 54, Emanuel, Ata, Ronen Chen, Twentyfourseven, Intima and Story.
Alongside modeling, she also works as a business development specialist at Natural Intelligence, a technology company that operates comparison websites powered by artificial intelligence.
“I’ve been there about a year,” she says. “I started in marketing but always wanted to move into business development, and recently I got the opportunity.”
She admits she didn’t expect to receive such a role at her age.
“I’m only 24,” she says. “But in my head, I always hear my mom saying, ‘You’re the best in the world. This is easy for you.’”
Looking toward the future
Despite everything, Sachs is planning ahead.
She is currently applying to study law.
“I hope one day to become a lawyer,” she says. “I discovered this passion during my national service at the State Attorney’s Office.”
Watching female prosecutors in court left a strong impression on her.
“It felt powerful and feminist. I want to work in the public defender’s office, to fight for people who are weaker.”
Her family’s experience navigating state bureaucracy after the tragedy also shaped that decision.
“At such a young age I had to deal with government institutions just to understand our rights,” she says. “It wasn’t simple. I found myself sitting across from lawyers and not understanding anything.”
That, she says, pushed her to take control of her future.
“I realized I need to learn how to navigate this world on my own.”