Three survivors from the October 7 Hamas attack have shared their thoughts and feelings on the ongoing war with Hamas, in a recorded interview with the UK’s Channel 4 News on November 5. The survivors, while recorded, were not named and so will be referred to as survivors one, two, and three.
On October 7, Hamas invaded Israel and brutally murdered 1,400 Israelis and foreign nationals. Hamas also kidnapped over 240 Israelis and is holding them hostage in Gaza. Terrorists from the organization invaded homes, raped, and tortured families near the Gaza Strip, and concertgoers at the Supernova festival. In response to the attack and the rockets sent by Hamas and its affiliates, the IDF has begun to attack Hamas to eradicate the group, which has cost the lives of many Gazan civilians.
“We were dancing and those seconds of being so unbelievably happy and safe and [we] feel all the love – and then, half-a-second after that, you are running for your life,” one of the three survivors told the source. “I was so exhausted and so terrified and then... it’s like a desert so it’s very open and there is no place to hide, but we found this place and we saw some bushes and herbs so we just crawled inside, to cover ourselves in leaves. We stayed there for six hours.”
The lasting trauma
“Do you feel scared at the moment?” the interviewer asked.
“I feel scared all the time,” the survivor responded. “I, honestly... I feel like I have already died. In a way, I feel like I have died. I know it is not fair to say because there are people who didn’t make it, but it just feels like being a ghost.”
“When it happened, two times I ran and stopped because I didn’t believe that this actually happened,” explained the second survivor. “Now, I feel like everything could have happened. For me, it’s [logical] that [a] terrorist will come from there and shoot me right now.”
The third survivor explained: “I think a lot of people that have been there feel it’s like a miracle because there’s no way…like they have a picture of the white hands with all of the bodies. I [was] when they started shooting, so all of the people that [are] dead now over there that they got murdered, I could have been one of them. If I didn’t do this I’ll probably be dead; if I didn’t do that, I’ll probably be dead. So, you can imagine yourself dying over and over and over again."
“It’s the experience of a lot of survival,” the first survivor explained. “We go back and try to like replay everything we did. We understand that every decision that we made was critical.”
The interviewer proceeded to ask the survivors, “Tell me, what helps? Does anything help?”
“For me,” responded the second survivor, “I’m like talking. When I tell my story, it tells me I think.”
“There is no [question?] that this trauma will vanish,” added the third survivor. “But it’s only time, I believe, only time."
“Do you think it’s changed you as a person?” the interviewer prompted. “Or how you look at the world?”
“In some ways,” answered the second survivor. “I’m like okay... this world is much worse than I thought. Much more cynical – like people see [what happened] and think this is somehow an act of freedom fighters: I can’t get it.”
“We stopped being naïve,” added the second survivor.
“I feel like my entire being has been shattered, like, you know that other people are actually being able to laugh and celebrate the thing that my country is going through right now,” said the first survivor. "It’s beyond devastating."
“Also,” added the second survivor, “I am on lots of social media… I see people from another country who deny it and... diminish it and [the] president of Turkey says that these are not acts of terror. So what is terror if this is not terror? This kind of makes me think that we live in a bad world.”
The situation in Gaza
The interviewer then proceeded to ask the question “What about the bombing of Gaza? There is concern about the number of civilians… people like you, young men and women like you being killed in Gaza…”
In a quick response, the third survivor answers “I know that Hamas uses human shields… We know that; we’ve been there. We know this is their strategy. We’re not only the good side; we know that the bombing in Gaza…it’s horrifying. I really don’t want kids and women and good people that are against Hamas [to] die. But if you are with Hamas, and you do believe in their way, how do you want us to handle this? They’re butchers of people; it is not revenge, it is reality.”
“We really don’t know what to do,” the first survivor continued. “People don’t understand: what options do we have? Innocent people are going to get killed no matter what we’re going to do. It’s the way it is when there is a terror organization that is active – that’s that.”
The interview then probed: “Is there another way?”
“No, unfortunately, no. If we just… If our army was just going inside without bombing first, we would have lots [and] lots of casualties – and we had enough casualties on October 7,” the second survivor finished by stating.
The Jerusalem Post and OneFamily are working together to help support the victims of the Hamas massacre and the soldiers of Israel who have been drafted to ensure that it never happens again.