Israelis recount their experiences during terrorist attack

Four residents of southern Israel who lived through the terrorist attacks on Oct. 7 spoke about their experiences earlier this week in Annandale.

All of them know people who were killed or taken hostage by Hammas. Despite the pain from reliving the trauma, they agreed to speak at a panel at the Pozez Jewish Community Center on Little River Turnpike because they want the public to know what happened.

Daniel Weiss, a musician and songwriter, had recently returned to Kibbutz Be’eri with his girlfriend, Orin Bokobza, where he had grown up.

He lost both of his parents on Oct. 7. His father was murdered, and his mother was kidnapped. Her body was later found outside a hospital in Gaza.

Orin described what life was like the day before the Oct. 7 attack. “It was a beautiful day. It was sunny. We spent time outside dancing, eating ice cream, and having dinner with the family.”

She woke up at 6:30 a.m. “to a noise I never heard before,” Orin said. “We didn’t understand what it is.” They went to their safe room – the bedroom – and closed the doors and windows. About 20 minutes or so later, Daniel’s parents called and said there were terrorists on the kibbutz.

They spent the next 11 hours in the safe room, whispering in the dark. They didn’t dare leave, even to get a drink of water.

After the panel discussion, Daniel performed a couple of songs, including one of his father’s favorites.

The tragedy had a big impact on his music. “Before, it was all about entertaining, having fun, and doing something I’m good at.” Now, he said, he uses music to heal himself from the pain and to help others heal. “Now it’s more important than ever to let ourselves just feel whatever comes.”

Yael Simon, an actor and fitness trainer in Tel Aviv, traveled to southern Israel for the Nova music festival. “It was so beautiful and exciting. People came to share love and dance. Everything was so pure and happy,” she said.

“Then on Oct. 7, everything stopped,” Yael said. “There were a lot of rockets. At first, we didn’t feel danger. In Israel it’s a normal thing. Then we started to hear gunshots and realized there were terrorists.” As she ran away, she saw burning cars and people falling after being struck.

After that day, “I feel like my innocence died. Everything is less happy now,” she said.

Yael said she came to the U.S. with the other panelists because, “It’s important for me to tell my story and my country’s story.” 

When Sharon Ana Yakobi learned there were terrorists on the ground, it was too late to evacuate. She and her children spent 27 hours in a safe room in her home at a kibbutz.

“We were living in a small community. We knew everyone,” Sharon said. She knows people who were shot and killed by Hamas and others who were taken to Gaza as hostages.

Her friend’s husband was shot and killed as he was protecting his family, shoving them into a safe room.

As a teacher, in the nearby city of Sderot, Sharon was worried about the students. One of her students texted her asking what to do after he took his parents to the roof of his house while terrorists were on the first floor. Another student became selectively mute after seeing a lot of burned bodies and cars.

Since the attack, she’s been helping traumatized children connect with therapists.

Sharon eventually relocated her family to a small room in another kibbutz farther north. Temporary houses are being set up in her home kibbutz to replaced those that were burned down. But she won’t return until the local council guarantees that the school will be safe.

“As a mother I’m supposed to make sure my children are safe,” she says.

Sharon used to host a Palestinian in her home – he was a friend of her father-in-law – and he was supposed to stay for dinner the day before the attack. But she saw him running away and she later heard he fled to Egypt.

When she was young Sharon used to go the beach in Gaza, and her husband felt safe going to the market there.

“I don’t trust Palestinians anymore,” she said. “They fired rockets at civilians. They killed a lot of my friends.”

She says most Palestinians just want a normal life, but they are not rising up against Hamas, a terrorist organization that opened fire on civilians. She noted the Israeli army is the only one that sends flyers to a war zone telling people to evacuate. “No one warned us.”

Before the attack, “we felt safe,” Sharon said. Not anymore.