Haunting reconstruction gives voices to Jewish victims and survivors

On the morning of October 7 last year, Israel’s much-vaunted military and intelligence services were taken completely by surprise when hundreds of Hamas terrorists stormed over the border with Gaza and invaded southern Israel.

Hamas had equipped their men with body cameras to capture images of the attack and some of the gruesome footage recovered showed sadistic mistreatment and murder.

October 7 was the deadliest attack on Jews since World War II and sparked a furious response from Israel. Six months on, Jonathan Mayo describes that terrible day, minute by deadly minute.

6.30am

In the Negev Desert in the south of Israel close to the border with Gaza, the Nova outdoor music festival — billed as ‘a journey of unity and love’ — is in full swing.

Some of the 3,000 young people notice black dots in the dawn sky approaching from the west — the direction of Gaza. As the dots grow bigger, the festivalgoers can hear the sound of paraglider engines.

The Hamas attack has begun. On the ground, fighters using explosives and bulldozers easily break through the fences and walls surrounding Gaza at multiple locations, and destroy Israeli army posts.

6.34am

Hundreds of rockets are fired from Gaza into Israel. At the Nova festival, sirens warning of incoming rockets blend with the dance music. Some revellers start to head to their cars and drive away.

Meanwhile the residents of Israeli communities known as kibbutzes close to Gaza get an automated ‘colour red’ message on their phones, telling them to head to their safe rooms. Israeli law requires all new buildings to have a reinforced concrete safe room with blast-proof windows and metal doors.

6.40am

In a well-planned operation, around 50 Hamas terrorists storm the Nova festival. Hundreds of festivalgoers run to their cars but Hamas have blocked all roads off the site.

Ortel, one of those attempting to flee, said: ‘Everyone stopped their vehicles and started running. I climbed into a tree and they just started spraying people.’ They have no option but to run across the desert in their hundreds, pursued by terrorists in trucks and on motorcycles, firing and snatching anyone they can find.

6.56am

Three miles to the north of the Nova festival, two Hamas gunmen carrying AK-47 assault rifles approach the entrance gate to kibbutz Be’eri, a large community of around 1,000 members, and break into the empty gatehouse.

A blue-grey car approaches the gate from the main road, driven by Benayahu Bitton, 22, who has fled the Nova festival with two friends seeking sanctuary. One of the Hamas gunmen opens fire, killing everyone in the car, which rolls slowly out of control through the now-open gate and is then looted.

7am

One of the residents of the kibbutz, triathlete Aya Meydan, has been on an early morning bike ride and is returning home.

When she is about 300 metres from the entrance, Aya is stopped by three Arab men from the Bedouin city of Rahat who work in the community’s cafeteria. They warn her that terrorists have infiltrated the kibbutz and are on a killing spree, so she and one of the Bedouin named Hisham run away towards the main road.

7.30am

The Hamas gunmen in kibbutz Be’eri head for an elderly neighbourhood known as the Olives. One of the residents, Amit Solvy, 70, told the Reuters news agency what he witnessed through the shutters of his safe room.

‘I saw three or four white trucks pull up and Hamas people getting down from them. They instructed people where to go. Together with Hamas, there were also a lot of young people with knives, machetes, and bags to loot.’

The head of the kibbutz security team is the only person with a key to the gun store, but he has been killed so they are virtually defenceless. The remaining security team decide to make a stand in the dental clinic.

A small Israeli police unit arrives, but when they realise they are outnumbered, they flee.

7.55am

About two dozen people who have managed to escape the music festival have hidden in a public bomb shelter on a main road. Hamas fire a rocket at the shelter, bringing debris crashing down on those inside. Nitzan Rahan, 28, four months pregnant and in the shelter with her husband Lidor, manages to phone her mother: ‘They’re shooting at us. Mum, I’m scared. I don’t want to be here! I don’t want to be here!’

7.56am

A parked car’s dashcam films the terrorists throwing a grenade inside the bomb shelter that kills those close to the entrance. A man runs out trying to escape and is gunned down. A terrorist throws a second grenade inside but off-duty soldier Aner Shapira, 22, grabs it and throws it out into the street where it explodes. The miltants throw in more grenades but each time Aner throws them outside.

Close-by, triathlete Aya and Hisham are hiding in bushes. Hisham’s cousin Ismail Alkrenawi calls him and says that he and three other relatives are on their way in a Jeep to rescue them.

8am

At the Nova festival, the massacre continues as terrorists pull people out of their cars and shoot them at point blank range.

Gilad Karplus, working as a massage therapist at the festival, manages to escape in a vehicle with some friends.

‘They started firing sniper rifles on us from different places and also heavy artillery,’ he says. Gilad is hit in the head by a bullet but manages to hide in a nearby building. ‘I felt like a wounded animal being hunted.’

The gunmen are targeting women, and many are raped and mutilated. The majority of victims are killed during or after the sexual assault.

One festivalgoer told the BBC he heard the ‘noises and screams of people being murdered, raped, decapitated’.

8.11am

An eighth grenade is thrown into the public bomb shelter. Before Aner Shapira can throw it back, it explodes in his hand, killing him instantly. Aner’s friend Hersh Golberg-Polin, 23, watches in horror. He has texted his parents, who live in Florida, two messages: ‘I love you’ and then, ten minutes later: ‘I’m sorry.’

Hamas throw more grenades and then enter the shelter and kidnap or kill any survivors.

Hersh Golberg-Polin, whose left arm has been blown off at the elbow, is one of seven taken; pregnant Nitzan Rahan and her husband Lidor are two of about 18 killed.

8.30am

Bedouin Ismail Alkrenawi and his three relatives are on their way to rescue Aya and Hisham when they see people from the Nova festival running for their lives.

Ismail said, ‘We saw people in mortal danger. Our conscience did not allow us to leave them there under fire. We said to them, “You’re OK”, we hugged them, gave them some water to drink.’

Over the next few hours, Ismail and his relatives take about 40 festivalgoers to safety.

The final death toll is 364 dead, among them 17 police officers, and 40 people abducted. Many are filmed as they are taken, including Noa Argamani, 26, who is shown being put on the back of a motorbike and driven away crying, ‘Don’t kill me!’ and reaching out for her boyfriend Avinatan Or who is being led away by gunmen.

9am

Hamas terrorists arrive at kibbutz Nir Oz close to the border with Gaza and find it deserted as the 400 members of the community are already in their safe rooms. They are all linked on a WhatsApp group and send urgent messages: ‘They are trying to break in. HELP please.’ ‘Why is the army not here?’

Over the next few hours, what has been called ‘the battle of the safe rooms’ in multiple kibbutzes across southern Israel begins.

One member of the Nir Oz community is trying to find a way to keep the door to their safe room shut: they were built as protection from rocket attacks but not ground assault, and don’t have locks, allowing neighbours to rescue them if necessary.

A friend urgently texts back: ‘Lock the handle from inside by placing something beneath it so that it can’t be pushed down. That’s what we did.’

Some residents will survive the day by gripping the door handles tightly to stop the gunmen getting in.

9.45am

Eitan Cunio, who looks after the chickens at Nir Oz, and his wife Stav and their two young daughters, aged two and four, are hiding in their safe room. As the terrorists are unable to break in, they pour petrol around the house and set it alight.

Eitan hurriedly blocks the bottom of the door with towels to stop the smoke and flames and the family try to escape through a window but it’s jammed. Eitan pulls the air conditioning unit off the wall which leaves a small hole that allows some fresh air in.

10am

In a recorded message Mohammed Deif, leader of Hamas’ military wing, says the attack is only the start of what he calls ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Storm’ a response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, Israeli raids in West Bank cities, violence at Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and the growth of Israeli settlements. Deif calls on Palestinians in Israel to join the fight.

10.42am

For almost two hours the terrorists have been roaming the Nir Oz kibbutz looking for victims. The desperate WhatsApp messages chart their brutal progress: ‘HELP HELP’ ‘They’re burning our house. HELP.’ ‘They’re burning our house, they threw grenades HELP PLEASE’ ‘The house is burning. What should I do??’

10.45am

At kibbutz Kfar Aza, home to about 800, young community member Bar Kislev is hiding from the terrorists, who are shouting: ‘Everyone out! Jews! Everyone out!’ They start to force residents into vehicles. ‘They were simply euphoric,’ Kislev said.

Close by, off-duty Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldiers Ori Lupo and her boyfriend Sivan are trapped in their safe room while terrorists roam their house. Ori said: ‘I heard them charging their weapons, sitting on the couch, speaking to one another, probably taking food from the fridge. And then [they saw] the uniform and they said to one another, ‘Come, IDF, come, IDF.’

The gunmen fire through the door and hit Sivan but then, fortunately, decide to move on to other targets. Ori and Sivan manage to reach the safety of Ori’s parent’s house on the kibbutz where they use a dog’s lead as a tourniquet to stop Sivan’s bleeding.

11.13am

At kibbutz Nir Oz terrorists are kidnapping dozens of residents and murdering others. Behind a house close to the perimeter fence, they find mother Shiri Bibas hiding with her two sons Ariel, four, and Kfir, who is only nine months old.

One of the gunmen films their abduction and his body camera shows blood on the shirt of one of the terrorists.

Shiri’s husband Yarden is also kidnapped, as is one of the founders of the kibbutz, 85-year-old grandmother Yafa Adar, who is driven away in a stolen golf cart. Hamas had broken into her safe room and demanded money, so she gave them all she had.

At first Yafa thought, ‘They’ll take me for a spin and take me back home. What would an 85-year-old woman be worth?’ But when it becomes clear that the gunmen’s intention is to kidnap her, Yafa smiles defiantly as she is filmed by the terrorists. ‘I said to myself, I won’t let them break me. I want my children to be proud of me. I didn’t cry or shed a tear.’

Yafa’s brave smile as she is taken into Gaza becomes one of the defining images of October 7. She is eventually released in late November.

11.13am

Eitan Cunio and his family are still trapped in their safe room and there is not enough air coming in from the hole left by the air conditioning unit. He texts the Nir Oz community in desperation: ‘The girls are choking.’ Eitan drifts in and out of consciousness and each time he comes round he tells his family how much he loves them.

11.21am

All the members of the kibbutz under attack had assumed they would be swiftly rescued by the Israeli army. A terrified member of kibbutz Be’eri texts: ‘Where’s that shitty army? It has become a fiasco!!!’

Hamas have attacked two army bases close to Be’eri, preventing any significant fight-back. A few soldiers have made it to the kibbutz but are outnumbered.

Meanwhile, the terrorists have broken into the home of 80-year-old Avlum Mils and are torturing him by removing the fingers of his left hand one by one.

1pm

Avlum Mils is drifting in and out of consciousness but manages to call his daughter who pleads, ‘Dad, can you stay with me? I want you to stay with me.’ Avlum replies, ‘I can’t hear anything,’ His daughter says: ‘I want you to stay with me the rest of my life, Dad.’ Avlum replies simply, ‘Goodbye.’ He dies later that day.

1.30pm

following four hours of carnage, Hamas terrorists finally leave kibbutz Nir Oz. Forty-six people have died and 71 been taken hostage.

Eitan Cunio and his family have survived but his brother David and his family have been kidnapped, as has their younger brother Ariel and his girlfriend. The last text message from Ariel to his family said: ‘We are in a horror movie.’

The slow response of Israeli forces is allowing Hamas to make multiple trips to bring back more hostages to Gaza.

1.45pm

After rescuing survivors from the Nova festival, Ismail Alkrenawi and his three relatives reach where Aya Meydan and Hisham are hiding. They screech to a halt and, as bullets fly around them, Ismail yells, ‘Come! Come! Come! Get in, get in the car!’

As they speed away, they come face to face with a unit of Israeli soldiers who assume the men are from Hamas and point their guns at them. Ismail and the others shout, ‘No! No! No! No! We are citizens of Israel! We came here to help! Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! We’re from Rahat!’

Aya falls to the floor in front of the soldiers and begs them not to fire. A soldier asks if the men have kidnapped her, and Aya tells them that on the contrary, they are her rescuers.

2pm

In kibbutz Nahal Oz, Tsachi and Gali Idan have just seen their 18-year-old daughter Maayan shot in front of them.

They are now sitting on their kitchen floor with their 11-year-old daughter Yael and nine-year-old son Shahar as Hamas fighters live-stream the family’s ordeal on Facebook.

The house is full of balloons as they’ve just celebrated Maayan’s birthday. One gunman tells the family in broken English, ‘She OK, she will go to her Allah, to her God.’ The rest of the family survive, but Tsachi is taken hostage.

2.05pm

Kibbutz Be’eri was one of the first to be overrun and the community’s security team have been holding out in the dental clinic for hours, but now Hamas have broken in.

Paramedic Amit Mann, who has been treating the wounded, is on the phone to her uncle Shimon. He hears her shout ‘No, no, no, no, no, no!’ then the sound of gunshots. Amit says weakly, ‘I love you all. Shimon, they shot me.’

Nurse Nirit Hunwald is hiding in the clinic’s bathroom, crouched in a fetal position. Today she had been planning to take her children on a treasure hunt. She texts her wife: ‘I won’t survive. They are right here.’

Nirit can hear the gunmen outside the door, but miraculously they walk past. It will be an hour before the army arrive at the kibbutz.

Over 100 people have been murdered at kibbutz Be’eri. An army spokesman said, ‘We thought we would need more rooms (to house the evacuees). We didn’t need all the rooms.’

2.15pm

It is too dangerous for Aya Meydan to return to kibbutz Be’eri, so she is being evacuated by bus to a safe location. Her mobile phone rings and it’s her rescuer Ismail, who tells her to look out of the bus window. ‘We are here beside you, and you are not alone.’

To her amazement Aya can see Ismail and his relatives in their Jeep escorting her all the way to safety.

Aftermath

By the time the Israeli military regained control about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, had been killed, hundreds of houses looted and burned, and more than 230 men, women and children taken hostage. Rescuers were shocked at what they found.

In one kibbutz safe room they discovered the charred remains of two adults, two children and their grandmother, still hugging each other in a final embrace. In a televised address that evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, declared, ‘All the places that Hamas hides in, operates from, we will turn them into ruins.’

One of the survivors of the Nova music festival, 27-year-old Nadav Hanan, said, ‘I believe in peace. I believe we’re not that different. My grandparents came from Arab countries. I have Arab friends. We eat the same food and use the same curses. It’s an abomination. No one mentally stable could do this. There’s no excuse. I think they had the choice [to say no when they were ordered to do this]. They took the other choice. They decided, ‘let’s kill as many as we can’, to make us despair.’