"It's been two years, but we're still on October 7th"
Almost two years after the Hamas attack, Israel's south is still recovering from the shock. The children are broken, and every second student in Sderot suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and needs help, Eduard Amirgolov, an adviser to the mayor of the city, told Izvestia. Survivors recall October 7 as the day they were stuck in forever — Mazal Tazazo had to pretend to be dead in order to survive. Now, explosions are heard again in the areas adjacent to the border with the Gaza Strip. Despite the ongoing war, Israel is returning residents to their destroyed homes and trying to heal the wounds of the most tragic date in its recent history. According to the Minister of Reconstruction of the south of the country, Zeev Elkin, the process of returning evacuees to eight border villages is beginning.
"I was choosing between death by fire and death by bullet"
It is less than a kilometer from the memorial complex in honor of those killed at the Nova festival to the border with Gaza. The smell of burning is still felt here, as a reminder of how the morning, which began with dancing in the open air, turned into a massacre. While the Izvestia correspondent was talking to the survivors of the attack, the rumble of artillery cannonade sounded in the air: they fired from Gaza.
— It's been almost two years, but we're still living on October 7th. We're stuck there. No matter how many psychotherapy sessions there are, we are still there," Mazal Tazazo, a resident of Netivot, an architecture student who comes from an Ethiopian Jewish family, says in an interview with Izvestia.
The venue of the Nova Music Festival, attacked by Hamas on October 7, 2023
Before the festival, she worked with teenagers from difficult families, and on October 6, she came with friends Danielle and Yochai to a musical event.
On October 7, 2023, another escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict took place. Fighters of the Palestinian Hamas movement attacked the border territories of Israel. As a result, about 1.2 thousand people were killed, and another 251 were taken hostage. However, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres stressed at the time that the Hamas attack did not come "out of a vacuum," but also because the Palestinian people have been under occupation for 56 years.
— Everything was magical. I shot the last video at 06:20 in the morning, and then went to the tent to get sunglasses. I heard sirens, but I live near Gaza, and I thought it was just rockets," she recalls.
But it wasn't them. Hamas militants stormed the festival grounds with machine guns and grenades.
— Then they set fire to the territory. I was choosing between death by fire and death by bullet, and I ran. When we reached the highway, we hid behind the car, and the shooting was coming from all sides. Bullets could be heard whistling," Mazal said.
Photos of people taken hostage by the Hamas movement. The city of Sderot.
Suddenly, it became clear to her that there was nowhere else to run. There are screams in Arabic all around. She ran into the bushes to hide. Then a militant caught up with her and hit her on the head with a butt.
— My friends were killed in front of my eyes. I decided the best thing to do was pretend to be dead. When the fire started, I broke out and hid in the car. I sat in it alone until three o'clock in the afternoon, until another survivor came up and took me to a safe place," the girl says.
Today she goes to university again, but every day begins with a memory of that Saturday.
"We fall asleep to gunfire, the house is shaking"
About 30 thousand people live in Sderot, a city 8 km from the border. He has become a symbol of frontline survival. Every second student here is on anxiety medications.
— I have five children. All five of them go to a psychiatrist and take medications. The eldest is 18, he has a 50% disability. The six—year-old starts having breakdowns - he throws the remote control at the TV screen. All the children have recovered, but they don't understand anything in class. These are 60% of the city's population," Eduard Amirgolov, adviser to the mayor of Sderot, tells Izvestia. — We fall asleep to gunfire, the house is shaking. At six in the morning, the children go to school tired. It's impossible to live like this.
There were Arabs among those who tried to save people. 25-year—old Amer Odeh Abu Sabila from the Bedouin village of Abu Talul gave his life trying to pull out two little girls — the daughters of the Israeli family Dolev and Odaya Suissa - during a fight at the police station in Sderot.
Kibbutz Nir Oz was virtually wiped off the face of the earth on this day, when Hamas militants broke into more than 200 houses. Of the approximately 400 residents, 117 were killed or abducted — one in four. A third of the kibbutz members died.
That day, the alarm did not subside, and the rockets continued to fall. Realizing that something out of the ordinary was happening, one of the women hid the children under blankets on the floor, while her husband held the door handle in the "safe room" with all his might, bracing his body so that it could not be opened. The gunman tried to break down the door, but he failed.
In many cases, if the terrorists could not get into the protected rooms where the residents were hiding, they simply set fire to the houses. People had to choose between burning to death or running into the street where the shooting was taking place.
It was in this kibbutz that the Trufanov family from Russia lived. Alexander Trufanov, who holds dual Israeli and Russian citizenship, was taken hostage along with three family members: grandmother Irina Tati, mother Elena and his girlfriend Sapir Cohen. His father, Vitaly Trufanov, was killed in a Hamas attack. Sasha found out about this only after his release from captivity 498 days later. Elena and Irina were released on November 29, 2023, as a sign of Hamas' respect for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Sapir Cohen was released the next day, November 30, as part of a week-long truce.
The current situation in the settlement still refers to the tragic events of that black Saturday: there are ruins of burnt—out houses and empty streets all around.
It was in this kibbutz that the youngest hostage abducted by Hamas, Kfir Bibas, was born. He was less than a year old at the time of the attack. His brother Ariel and his parents were captured with him.
Later, according to the IDF, the family was intentionally killed in Gaza. According to Israeli Army spokesman Daniel Hagari, judging by the forensic evidence, the boys were killed with their bare hands. Hamas claims that they died as a result of an Israeli army strike.
"We were alone, there was no country with us"
The Israeli Government is returning people to the destroyed villages. According to the Minister for the Reconstruction of the South and North of the country, a member of the military-political cabinet, Zeev Elkin, the main part of this campaign has been completed today.
— In the south, we have almost completed this process. After October 7, 60,000 residents were evacuated, most of whom returned a year ago. The return of eight border villages is now beginning. Five more have received permission from the army, but while the restoration work there has not been completed, they will return within a year," the minister said.
Inspections are continuing in the country "to study the mistakes that led to the Hamas attack," a source in the Israeli Foreign Ministry told Izvestia.
The venue of the Nova music Festival, attacked by Hamas on October 7, 2023. The plaque of Maxim Kharkin, a native of Donetsk, still held captive in Gaza
The Hamas rocket launch began at 06:29. Ofakim Police Chief Niwi Ohana was the first to realize that something out of the ordinary was happening. He ordered the festival to be stopped immediately and people evacuated — his actions saved hundreds of lives. However, there was little time: minutes later, the militants crossed the border and began the massacre. Surveillance systems quickly went down, and chaos ensued at all levels. At 07:15, the first disturbing message appeared in the general chat of Kibbutz Nir Oz residents: "Terrorists disguised as soldiers at the clinic." At 09:30, David Kunio (still being held captive in Gaza) wrote: "Save us, they're in the house! Where is the army?" Dozens of residents repeated this question, not understanding why there was no help.
The division headquarters officially announced the invasion of Nir-Oz only at 09:04, more than two hours after the attack began. By this time, the houses in the kibbutz were already on fire, and people remained trapped inside.
It was only at two o'clock in the afternoon that the soldiers of the Israeli special forces arrived on the territory of Nir-Oz. But by that time, the Hamas militants had already left the kibbutz — at about 13:00, according to local residents. "We were alone, there was no country with us," says Olga Metzger, a resident who survived the October 7 attack.
The IDF operation is still ongoing in the Gaza Strip, accompanied by a difficult humanitarian situation. There are cases of looting and violence on the streets, as well as shooting at civilians trying to receive humanitarian aid.
Houses burned by Hamas militants in the settlement of Nir Oz on the border with Gaza
Since March 2, 2025, aid from the United Nations and international humanitarian organizations has stopped coming to Gaza. In May, Israel, with the support of the United States, introduced a new food delivery scheme through a special fund, which actually transferred the monopoly rights to organize distribution centers. This initiative has attracted criticism, in particular, because of the placement of centers in the so—called security zones in the south of the exclave, which, according to observers, could lead to the forced resettlement of Palestinians.
As a result of the ongoing conflict, despite some short-term truces, more than 58,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and about 1.5 thousand Israelis were killed.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
