Indian Nanny Sandra Samuel to Get Israeli Citizenship for Saving Boy from Terror Attack

(July 20) -- A heroic Indian woman who risked her life to protect a 2-year-old Jewish boy after his parents were killed in the devastating Mumbai terror attacks of 2008 will be given Israeli citizenship.

"This is a humanitarian move necessary for anyone who saves a Jewish life," Israel's Interior Minister Eli Yishai was quoted as saying.

Sandra Samuel, 46, was the nanny for young Moshe Holtzberg when Pakistani terrorists armed with machine guns stormed through the upper floors of the Chabad House Orthodox Jewish center, where the toddler's parents served as directors.

Uriel Sinai, Getty Images

Nanny Sandra Samuel holds Moshe Holtzberg, the boy whose life she saved during the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India.

Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, his wife, Rivka, and four other Jews in the center were shot to death on the first night of the attacks, which lasted from Nov. 26 to 29 and left at least 175 people dead.

The next day, as the attacks continued to rage throughout the city, Samuel heard Moshe crying out for her, so she left her first-floor hiding place to seek him out. She says he found Moshe standing between the bodies of his dead parents.

Samuel, a recently widowed mother of two, wrapped Moshe in a blanket and fled the building into the chaos that still filled Mumbai's streets, making her way to the home of an Israeli consul.

She later moved to Israel to continue caring for Moshe, who is living with his maternal grandparents. But according to a Daily Telegraph report, she found it hard at first to gain an Israeli visa that would allow her to stay.

Earlier this month, however, Yishai announced that Samuel had been given temporary residential status, the first step toward permanent citizenship.

"She risked her life in order to save Jews and we are obligated to take care of her," the interior minister said. "The family has impressed upon me that she is vital to the continuing rehabilitation process, following the terrible disaster they have undergone."

Samuel has "pledged to stay" by Moshe's side "for as long as he needs," according to a statement posted on its news blog by the Chabad organization in Israel.

Her devotion to the child was made clear in a CNN interview only days after the attack. She also described coming face to face with a gunman.

"First thing is that a baby is very important for me and this baby is something very precious to me and that's what made me just not think anything -- just pick up the baby and run," she said.

"When I hear gunshot, it's not one or 20. It's like a hundred gunshots," she added. "Even I'm a mother of two children so I just pick up the baby and run. Does anyone think of dying at the moment when there's a small, precious baby?"