(Editor’s note: DAILY TRIBUNE is one of only eight major newspapers worldwide granted the rare opportunity to visit ground zero of the deadly Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. This is the third of a series of articles. For articles, photos and videos, visit https://tribune.net.ph/special report.)

TEL AVIV, Israel — There’s only one thing left for the Israelis to do following the deadly attack by the Hamas terrorists on 7 October last year.

“We’re not losing hope,” said Rita Lifshitz, a resident of the tiny kibbutz in the southern town of Nir Oz just across from the Gaza border that was raided by the Palestinian-backed militant group.

“We may have lost our friends, family, neighbors and other loved ones, but we will keep on praying. We will keep on hoping that one day, those who were abducted will come home and get back to their normal lives,” she said.

Lifshitz still has hope nine months after the attack that left a massive trail of destruction with more than 1,200 Israelis dead, abducted, raped or tortured. It prompted the Israeli government to launch a retaliatory attack on Palestine, the nearby country that served as the epicenter of the Hamas operation.

Lifshitz said she lost many family members and friends in the attack, but what hurt the most was the abduction of her father-in-law, 83-year-old Oded Lifshitz

A longtime correspondent for left-wing newspaper Al-HaMishmar, Oded was frail, injured and ill when he was taken captive. He was at home with his wife, 85-year-old Yocheved, when the terrorists barged in on a Sabbath holiday, took them hostage and set their house on fire.

Yocheved was also in poor condition. She was on her oxygen machine when the terrorists yanked her from her bed. Fortunately, she was released together with 78-year-old Nurit Cooper on 23 October. But Oded remains in the jaws of terror.

“In their house, there is a fridge. When you open it, you’ll notice that there is one beer left,” Lifshitz told DAILY TRIBUNE.

“This is a sign and I believe that Oded Lifshitz will soon be back home to drink that beer and be with his amazing grandchildren and with the people he loves,” she said.

“I told you, he is a peace fighter who takes children to chemo in Jerusalem from the Gaza border so that they will stay healthy and be alive. So I hope there is a family who is taking care of Oded Lifshitz in Gaza.”

In total, 46 hostages were abducted and 71 killed from the border community of Nir Oz out of the total of 1,200 killed and 252 abducted in the Hamas onslaught.

Highway to hell

While the Hamas terrorists were razing Kibbutz Niz Or to the ground, some of them attacked the nearby areas within the Gaza envelope.

They sowed terror at the Supernova Sukkot gathering, an open-air music festival celebrating the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret near the kibbutz Re’im.

At least 40 hostages were taken while several more were murdered, raising the number of casualties in

the moshavim or cooperative communities of Nir Oz, Netiv HaAsara, Be’eri, Kfar Aza, and Holi.

To make sure they got as many victims as they could, Hamas put up a blockade in nearby Tekumah, where cars were peppered with bullets before being burned. All told, they struck 1,650 cars.

“For us, life is a sacred thing. But we have an enemy that worships death,” said military officer Matt Ishttah while leading DAILY TRIBUNE to a huge pile of metallic junk that were the charred remains of cars, motorcycles, trucks, and an ambulance that was to transport victims from the music festival to a hospital in Tel Aviv.

“As you can see, most of the vehicles in this car cemetery have multiple shots to the hood. Why? Do you have an idea? Because they wanted to stop the vehicles and make sure that nobody would escape, that everyone would be taken to a highway to hell.”

“Once they stopped a vehicle, they would decide whether to murder them, kidnap them, rape them, chop them up, burn them alive — everything,” he said.

Ishttah said they kept all of the 1,650 cars so the world would be reminded of the atrocities that Hamas committed against the people of Israel.

“We were left in cold blood,” the muscular and bearded Ishttah said, holding back tears, a high-powered assault rifle by his side.

“They shot and murdered each person that they found. They didn’t discriminate — women, children, old people, everybody. In just a single day, those terrorists turned the lives of the Israelis into a living hell.”

Yellow ribbon

Still, optimism is very much alive in the capital city of Tel Aviv. Yellow ribbons can be seen in public places like hotels, restaurants, bars, offices, and streets.

Neta Zeevi, who was the tour guide of the international media group that visited the destroyed community of Nir Oz on Wednesday, had a small yellow ribbon pinned on his black shirt.

“The yellow ribbon is an international sign for getting back our hostages,” said Zeevi, who was in the final year of his Business Management course at Wingate Institute when he was drafted to serve in the military. He was assigned to the tank division, whose primary task was to provide supplies to the Israeli troops who had intensified their military operation in the Gaza Strip.

“This yellow ribbon means ‘bring them home now.’ You can see it in multiple places in Israel and around the world,” he said.

Aside from the yellow ribbon, private and government offices have allotted a small corner in their spaces to commemorate those who died in the attack that completely shattered the relationship between the neighboring countries of Israel and Palestine.

Nadav Yaacobi of the Sports Channel, known as Sport 5 in Tel Aviv, said they had set aside an empty yellow chair below the photos of those who were either abducted or murdered in the deadly attack.

“This is how we remember those who died and are still missing,” Yaacobi told DAILY TRIBUNE when asked about the empty chair in a small corner of the ultra-modern Sport 5 office.

“It’s tough, but life must go on. We don’t know what the future holds. For now, all we can do is hope that they will come back again,” he said.

Bracing for battle

But if there’s something positive that is rising from the ashes of the attack, it’s the determination, courage and unity of the people of Israel.

Some students of the Israel Institute of Technology have expressed willingness to pick up guns and defend their homeland in case Israel’s quest for justice escalates into a full-blown war with Palestine.

“With the maturity and awareness that young people like us have gained from this war, we are ready to take up guns and help defend our country,” said 24-year-old Rachel, who trained with the Israeli Army as part of her mandatory military service.

“Young people like us are being told that ‘you already have an army, now go back to your own home.’ No, we will not allow that. This is a war and we are committed to protecting and helping our country win this war.”

She said that undergoing the mandatory military service is not easy, but it’s their only way to repay their country.

“It sucks sometimes,” she said.

“But it’s something great that you can do for your own country. Think about it. For 18 years, you’ve been in this beautiful country but now that it needs your help, you’re gonna turn your back? No. You have to give back by offering your services.”

Zeevi agreed, saying that being a patriot knows no age.

“They may be getting a degree ahead of me, but I’m gaining leadership, maturity, and some people I saw, they were driving a freaking tank. I know a lot of people can command a division of tanks even being just under 19,” said Zeevi, who has several months of combat experience under his belt.

“They know the country is at war and it is not counting on anybody but its own people. This is the only chance for us to help, to show how much we love the country and how proud we are to be Israeli.”