I’ve been tutoring a high school student from Ofakim, Israel on Zoom for the past few years. This is her story of October 7, in her own words. I thought our community should hear it:
“Saturday, October 7, without a doubt, a day that I will not forget for a very, very long time. A day that feels like it was yesterday. We woke up at 6:30 in the morning to nonstop missile sirens, hundreds of rockets were launched into Israel that morning. Rockets whose only goal was to kill, to kill innocent civilians that just wanted to rest and be with their families on their day of rest. We all ran in a panic to the shelter on our street. I remember that when we were in the shelter with my neighbors one of them said that there was a suspicion that terrorists infiltrated our city. My city, Ofakim, is 27 kilometers from Gaza, and despite the distance the terrorists also succeeded to get to us.
“I remember how we ran in a panic back to our houses, locked the doors and windows, to do as much as we could. My family and I laid on the floor for 48 hours, almost without eating and drinking, just from the fear that a terrorist would see us. Meanwhile we were hearing about a large number of deaths in Ofakim, my city, good people each and every one that didn’t do anything bad to anyone. They had to be murdered in cold blood because of hate, hate so strong.
“For the terrorists it didn’t matter who they murdered. They murdered grandpas and grandmas, parents and kids, toddlers, babies, soldiers, police officers, and every person they saw. My city is very small, everything is close. The fear was enormous, the fear that they would come to us as well.
“We couldn’t fall asleep; we woke up from every little sound that we heard. It was crazy hot outside, but we still turned off the air conditioner and all the lights because we were scared that they would figure out there were people at home.
“Additionally, when they told us that the terrorists were killed, we didn’t know how many more there were and what else to expect. That is how we lived for days in fear of leaving the house, and also afraid at home; our safe place we didn’t feel safe anymore.
“In summary, in my small city of Ofakim, 52 innocent people were murdered and another 14 were injured. This was the horrifying experience that I don’t wish for any person to go through. We felt like we were in a horror movie. We didn’t process that this was reality.”
- Nesta, 16, Ofakim Israel
Diane Rowe
Warwick