Voices of October 7th: Survival on the Border

Ashley Key: "Hey everyone, I am here in Israel, in the south, actually along the Gaza border and today I had the absolute honor and privilege to speak with three survivors of those attacks on October 7th, 2023. One of which is a survivor of the Nova Music Festival, and the two others I spoke with are survivors of the kibbutz’s that were attacked on that day. And I would just encourage you guys to listen with open hearts and open minds to hear the truth of what they experienced on a personal level, and how even amidst the tragedy that they have experienced, they still have hope for the future." 

For the residents of these tight-knit border communities, October 7th was a sudden descent into absolute terror. At Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a peaceful neighborhood of young families became the epicenter of one of the bloodiest massacres in modern Israeli history. 

Avidor (Kibbutz Kfar Aza Survivor): "On that day, everyone lost someone. I mean, even me personally. I lost my in-laws, that I loved dearly. I lost a cousin, her husband, and their two children. Dozens of people were killed here, dozens more were kidnapped. The feeling was that we are in the middle of the apocalypse. Everything burns, and we don't know what will happen to us, if we have any chance to be rescued." 

The horror unfolded room by room as families sought desperate shelter. 

"We woke up at 6:29 when the missile barrages started. I ran to my daughter's room, I picked her up... we closed ourselves in the safe room, and we held the door, my wife and I, for 22 hours. We grabbed an iron, we took the cable, and we closed it around the door handle…" 

Ashley Key: "You like, wrapped it?" 

Avidor: "Yeah, and around the bed frame. We had knives and grabbed a couple of frying pans." 

Miles away, the terror expanded into the open desert plains, where thousands of young adults gathered for a celebration of music and life. 

Shalev (Nova Festival Survivor): "I came here with five friends, very good friends from school from. For us, we called that a reunion celebration because we didn't see each other for a long time. Then inside my tent at 6:39 a.m., I could hear the launch of the missiles. I saw thousands of trails of rockets above us." 

"Then we started to hear more gunshots, much closer to us, much more intensive gunshots. And that was very strange because this is Saturday morning. You're not supposed to hear any gunshots in Israel. We couldn't even imagine that Hamas invaded the borders. We started to run on the open fields. We ran, me and my friends, eight kilometers." 

Shalev and his friends were eventually hidden and saved by an Arab farm manager named Younis. But the trauma left behind by that day didn’t simply disappear when the gunfire stopped. 

Shalev: "I’m still trying as much as I can to be active and go out and share my story. For me, this is the way to deal with what happened to me and kind of, because of that, like sharing my story I was able to find the purpose behind what happened. That day taught me that it’s not about allegiance itself, it’s much more about the people. Everything is about the people." 

Reclaiming humanity also means reclaiming home. For survivors like Michal, who stood guard at her door waiting for grenades to detonate, moving back was the ultimate act of defiance. 

Michal (Kibbutz Nirim Survivor): "Then March 2025, I was the first family with children to come back. You know, on that day, it wasn't us who decided how things were going to come out. It was them. That was something that went with us all this time because it's kind of something you don't have control over our lives. So, we said, okay, we're coming back to the beginning to see the place where it all began, and we're taking back control of what is ours. We make the decisions now. Coming back here, you know, it’s like the first step to healing." 

Now years later, the scars remain visible in southern Israel. Yet, through shared trauma, unlikely heroes, and an unbreakable bond to their homeland, these survivors prove that while October 7th will always be remembered for its darkness, the future belongs to the light.