Victims of Israel’s worst-ever single terror attack have told how they are coping with memories and ongoing horror of the October 7 Hamas assault a year ago tomorrow.
Monday marks a year since Hamas killers marauded outside Gaza, slaughtering some 1,200 victims and kidnapping 250, dozens still held inside the Palestinian Strip.
The terror attack led to the Gaza war in which almost 42,000 Palestinians have been killed and conflict in Lebanon is now raging after Hezbollah attacked Israel in support of Gaza’s militants.
Israel’s conflicts have led to fears of a wider all-out state on state war between the Jewish state and Iran which is awaiting retaliatory strikes approved by PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israeli Maya Alper, 25, is living in a community in the heart of Guatemala, 7,500 miles from the worst attack on the Nova Festival near Gaza where she nearly died.
In the first shots of October 7 she hid in terror in a bush as Hamas gunmen slaughtered her friends and tried to kill her, so close she could see the “black hatred” in their eyes.
She hid for six hours until Israeli troops arrived, not realising that her younger brother, a soldier, was fighting Hamas just over a mile away.
Famously she recorded an amazing video, remaining calm, helicopters above her, as she told the camera: “I am so f*****g proud of myself…” as she celebrated her survival.
Speaking to the Mirror she said of the Hamas gunman she saw: “I have never seen such eyes, it is so hard to forget. It was pure black and there was no colour.
“I saw them killing my friends and this is all so f****d up because I have huge compassion for the people of Gaza and of course my own people who have been through a lot in the past year.
“Some people don’t see things the way I do and that is fine.
“Everyone’s individual truth is their truth.
“Now I am okay with not being okay.”
Maya, who teaches “breathing” therapy, has been through hell and says: “First, I couldn’t stop crying and screaming and wondered what was happening to me.
“Then I stopped fighting it and instead of pushing it away I remembered my breathing work.
“On the ninth day of suffering like this I couldn’t stop crying. I cried for 15 hours straight.
“Now I am at the point where the darkness is going and I am letting the light back in.”
In the countdown to the anniversary she said she has tried to reach closure, explaining: “I recently burned the clothes I wore at the festival in a sort of ceremony. I did it.”
Maya’s best friend in Guatemala is an Iranian woman, whose family she says would “kill her” if they knew they were close.
“I choose to take a day for my friends who died and I think about them every day and I can choose to remember that I made it out of there and celebrate my life.”
Asked what she thinks of the war she said: “There are people who want death and others want life.
“The minute people stop choosing sides and understanding then we may reach peace, put all our energy into protesting against the killing.
“I grew up with Arab friends. I have dated Arab people, I am happy with that and just want an end to all this hatred.”
In Tel Aviv we met businessman Eli Shtivi, 55, whose photographer son Idan, 28 was kidnapped after his friends were murdered by Hamas gunmen at the Nova Festival.
Eli’s weight has plummeted by several stones since October 7 through the intense worry.
The father of four told us: “This is crazy and horrible but I believe in hope and that maybe the situation will change.
“I love Idan very much and I want him back desperately.
“Every day I touch his bed in a sort of ceremony and I talk to him.”
Fighting tears and his voice faltering he tell us: “I tell him ‘Idan you are strong and I miss you. I know that you are strong. One day you will come back to me.
“I believe Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar knows the hostages are valuable and they will survive because of that.
“I believe and I hope that this war will be over in weeks.”
One Briton living in Israel told how people are trying to rebuild their lives.
During the October 7 attacks Israeli communities, the Kibbutzim were attacked, including one of the worst hit Be’eri, where 60 year-old Briton Simon King lives.
He was forced to retreat to a safe room for 36 hours with his wife, Zehavit, 52, and his two sons, 14 and 15.
He recalls being trapped and “lying on the floor” with his family in a pitch black room as they heard gunshots and explosions, before being evacuated.
They now live in a prefabricated mobile home – in Kibbutz Hatzerim, about a 40-minute drive from Be’eri, and he said he tries to “use every day as much as possible”.
Speaking from his home Mr King said of the anniversary: “I think the acceptance of what’s happened, people are kind of getting their head around it slowly.
“When you sit around the table and you talk to people and have conversations it always goes to the seventh, where you were.
“And people are still putting ends together”
One year after the Israel-Hamas war started, he said he felt taken aback that he and his family were able to escape unharmed.
“It totally amazes me how we all got out alive,” said Mr King, originally from Worcestershire, but who has been living in southern Israel since 1984.
Recalling being trapped for 36 hours, he said: “It was pitch dark most of the time, because there was no electricity, so all we could hear were explosions, gunshots, automatic rifle fire, shouting.
“We could hear running. We could hear the siren going off.
“It was very frightening. We were in there for 36 hours.
“We were lying on the floor together, whispering, reading text messages.”
Mr King says: “In the beginning, it was really, really difficult.
“If you let it get to you it will definitely get you down.”
He now tries to make the most of each day, adding: “I live for the moment.”
