By Kayhan Life Staff
The last day of the Jewish holiday Simchat Torah, which means “the joy of Torah” in Hebrew, marks the conclusion of the annual cycle of public readings of the Torah, the Hebrew Bible, and the beginning of a new cycle. It is a celebration accompanied by dancing and singing that lasts several hours, from evening to morning. However, October 7, 2023, will not be remembered for its celebrations but as the darkest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
Starting at 6:29 am, between three to four thousand trained and armed terrorists breached the fortified barrier between the Gaza Strip and Israel by land, air, and sea, according to an Israeli Defense Force report published in June 2024. They killed 1200 men, women and children. They took 251 Israelis and foreigners hostage. A total of 97 hostages remain unaccounted for.
In Reim, the site of the Nova Music festival located 3 miles from the Gaza Strip, over 3000 revelers came under one of the largest barrages of rockets to ever hit Israel in a single day. The terrorists surrounded the camp and blocked the roads in and out of the site. Three hundred sixty-four lost their lives on the festival site.
Adam Ittah, Home Front Command Spokesperson, described that DNA remains of different human beings were recovered from one ambulance: “They shot dozens of AK 47 bullets. “They threw hand grenades inside and launched an RPG at the ambulance. ”
Dean Elsoune, Police Spokesperson, described the horror that occurred that day.
Nir Oz Kibbutz in southern Israel sustained the most damage and bloodshed per capita in the Hamas attack. 117 out of the 450 residents of Nir Oz were either killed or kidnapped. Only seven out of 220 homes were left untouched. There are still 29 hostages from this Kibbutz held captive in Gaza.
Irit Lahav, who grew up in the Kibbutz, remembers a safer time. “There was no fence at all between us and the Palestinians.” She remembered weddings the communities celebrated together.
Like many of her fellow residents, Irit was active in Israel’s anti-occupation movement. She opposed the Israeli settlers who moved into the Palestinian lands and celebrated their removal in 2005. Irit served as a volunteer, escorting sick Palestinians from Gaza issued with Israeli permits to leave the blockaded territory for treatment in Jerusalem or the West Bank.
In this video, she describes the horror that occurred in Nir Oz.
Rotem Cooper was born and raised in Nir Oz but moved to California over thirty years ago. In this video, Rotem recounts what happened to his parents on October 7, 2023.
Eighty-year-old Nurit and her husband Amiram, 85 years old, were kidnapped. Nurit was released after 17 days. Amiram, who survived for four months in captivity, was murdered in February 2024.
The vehicles recovered from the site of the Nova music festival are on display at Moshav Tekuma. A wheat field was transformed into a car graveyard.
Home Front Command Spokesperson Adam Ittah noted that 800 out of the 1650 vehicles brought to the site were from the Nova festival. “300 of them were completely burned, deliberately burned.”
Ittah, who had returned to Israel from the US to develop a startup, was a reservist on October 7. He says the tragedy should have never been allowed to happen. He praises the work of the team of 35 reservists who worked 12-14 hours daily for three and a half weeks, collecting and processing human remains, including finding teeth and bones, “At least we did what we could have done to give them a proper burial.”
Many Israelis agree that October 7 is a tragedy that should have never been allowed to happen. Dean Elsoune insists the nation of Israel is a nation of resilience, “our entire history is about getting massacred and butchered and then coming right back up.”
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