“From the river to the sea, we all need therapy.”
This is what a Jewish mother told me, explaining that her son survived the terrorist attack on the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023. She thanks God every day for saving his life.
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“Not a fun party,” her son quipped.
The first week of June, I spent nearly 10 days in wartime Israel visiting holy sites and hearing from survivors of the Oct. 7 attacks. Many witnessed Hamas kill their friends and family. While American headlines simply portray a deadly power struggle, I found something deeper: Many victims of unspeakable violence are still holding out hope for peace with Gaza.
An unlikely rescue
After days of travel, we made our way to the site of the Nova music festival attack. There, we met Shalev Biton, an ethnic Jew whose life was saved by a Muslim on Oct. 7.
Hours before the attack, Biton had arrived at Nova to celebrate a reunion with his childhood friends after their mandatory service in the Israeli military.
Early in the morning, Biton awoke to rockets in the sky. He and his friends quickly packed their things and tried to drive away, but the swarm of cars leaving the festival quickly backed up. They opted to abandon the car — now in Israel’s “car cemetery,” beside nearly 1,600 decimated cars from the attack.
The friends leaped out of their car and immediately saw a woman screaming, covered in blood from the waist up. They started running.
Biton and his friends ran for about 5 miles, removing their clothes due to the heat. They eventually found a farm to seek shelter. The farm manager was none other than an Israeli Bedouin Muslim, Younes Alkarnawi.
They took their rest briefly at the farm until a worker told Alkarnawi that terrorists on motorcycles were approaching. Biton and his friends found a building propped up on beams and crawled underneath it for fear of their lives.
Biton said he thought he was about to die. He began praying.
Meanwhile, the terrorist asked Alkarnawi where he was hiding the “naked Jews,” according to Biton. Alkarnawi, shaking, told the terrorist he was a Muslim and they were alone. The terrorist eventually left — and Biton’s newfound Muslim friend had saved his life.
Before this, Biton said he had taken his life for granted. But now, he said he wants to be a better person, demonstrate love, and be more patient — though it is “not easy to do in Israel.”
Hope amid horror
Shachar Shnurman and his wife, Ayelet, are members of kibbutz Kfar Aza. On Oct. 7, they spent more than 30 hours hiding in their safe room, awaiting rescue as Hamas killed dozens of their neighbors.
In the weeks following the attack, Shnurman and his wife attended many funerals. But they still long to be peaceful neighbors with Gaza.
After walking through streets marked by carnage, Shnurman brought us to a home in the “Young Generation” neighborhood. This is where terrorists killed 23-year-old Sivan Elkabetz and her partner Naor Hasidim.
“Dad, promise me you’re okay. There are terrorists at the window,” Elkabetz said in her last text message.
Today, a sign marks the entrance of the home: “The family invite you to come into the house.” The house seems stuck in time, both surreal and disturbing. Bullet holes cover nearly every inch of the ceiling and walls. Broken glass is scattered on the floor. The mattress, which the couple was hiding under, was tattered and thrown about.
When the Israeli military arrived in that neighborhood on Oct. 7, they didn’t find any residents, Shnurman said. Everyone had been killed, kidnapped, or had run away.
“Usually when the terrorists find that they have to fight against an Israeli soldier, they run away,” he said. “This is one of the first times that they stayed and fought. And fought for a long time.”
The fighting in Kfar Aza continued for days after the initial assault, as dozens of Hamas terrorists barricaded themselves inside homes.
Of the nearly 1,000 people who lived in Kfar Aza, Hamas killed 64 and took 19 as hostages. Seventeen hostages were released alive, though two were mistakenly killed by the Israeli military in an attempt to escape.
“It’s a number that Israel doesn’t know how to live with,” Shnurman said of the casualties.
Overall, on Oct. 7, Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and abducted 251 people as hostages, many of whom would not survive. Israel then retaliated toward Gaza, aiming to dismantle the terrorist group.
Despite his incredibly personal connection to the killings, Shnurman still called to find a way to end the war. He wished Israel and Gaza could learn to respect each other.
“You don’t have to love me,” he said, referring to the people of Gaza. “I don’t have to love them. But to live in a place that no one wants to kill you… And after that, we learn to love each other. It’s a bonus. Israel must find a way to make peace with all our neighbors.”
Shnurman said he thinks Israel and Gaza should come to terms with the fact that they cannot entirely defeat each other.
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“When you hear someone shout ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ it’s a call to genocide,” he said. “But remember, we can’t say, ‘From the river to the sea, Israel will be free,’ because it’s again a call to genocide.”
“Both sides can’t use this word,” he added. “If you use this word, you say it once, you say it twice, and the third time, you try to do it. Don’t say it. Tell other people — Don’t say it.”
Lauren Washburn is Christopher Rufo’s executive assistant. She formerly served as a researcher for Dr. Phil Primetime and has bylines in the Federalist, the American Spectator, Michigan Enjoyer, and more.
