After more than two years of brutal conflict engulfing much of the Middle East, the world tenuously holds onto hope that the recent ceasefire between Israel and Gaza will bring about lasting peace. Lost in the politics and barbarity of the conflict, however, has been an understanding of how such a violent war tragically shaped the lives of civilians on both sides. Survivors Noam David and Moran Yanai recently gave a talk at UVA’s Brody Jewish Center about their horrific experiences in the face of death on October 7th.
Both Noam and Moran gave a picture of their lives before discussing the day of the attacks. Noam was acting, painting, and enjoying a loving relationship with her boyfriend, David, at the time. “I was genuinely happy,” she said — the festival she planned on attending, the Nova, was one of the biggest events of the year for young people like Noam. For Moran, life hadn’t unfolded as she expected, but she was encouraged to go to the Nova as a vendor to sell her jewelry. After struggling for stretches of her life to find a purpose, Moran talked about how her rekindling with God was starting to help redirect her life. The Nova was supposed to be another step forward in that journey.
For both of the survivors, October 7th unfolded slowly. Many festival-goers weren’t alarmed by the initial rocket fire, given Israel’s Iron Dome protection and the relative frequency with which Hamas launched rockets in previous years. Yet as the afternoon went on, Noam and Moran recalled the gradual approach of gunfire, screams, and panic. Noam was stuck in jammed traffic when she and David fled their car. Behind them, people were getting shot in the back trying to run from approaching terrorists who had stopped traffic. Meanwhile, Moran recalled how just 10 meters away from her in different tents, people were being ambushed and murdered.
The night turned into a battle for survival for both women. Noam and David chose to hide in a dumpster with 16 people. The terror, panic-stricken people, and confusion put her on edge, but Noam praised David’s calming presence in the face of it all. Terrorists eventually made their way to the dumpster and sprayed machine gun fire, killing 16 people — including David. Noam was left holding back screams from a bullet wound she had received to the hip until IDF forces made their way back and uncovered the dead from the trash where they had attempted to hide themselves.
On the other hand, Moran was able to successfully use broken Arabic to convince 2 different roving attacker groups that she was actually Muslim. It was when she cried out for the IDF that she was rushed by a third group and violently taken hostage. Moran was taken back to Gaza — having sustained two broken legs and countless cuts and bruises — to endure 54 days of torturous imprisonment. Aside from the constant threat of execution, the terrorists tried to break Moran’s spirit through lies such as: “your parents aren’t looking for you,” or by denying basic medical and hygienic care. It seemed the killings were random; Moran recalled how a particularly optimistic and kindhearted hostage was suddenly murdered by their captors — and she still doesn’t understand why.
The lessons people are forced to learn when coping with such unimaginable tragedies makes their stories particularly powerful. Noam focused on how her memory of David motivates her to live meaningfully on his behalf, while Moran said that there are just too many good people in this world not to see beauty in continuing. For Moran, her faith in God also helped her to push through the most lonely of times as well. However, neither woman claimed to be fully at peace with what happened, and agreed that many days are still cripplingly difficult to face.
As UVA students, it’s important to periodically step away from the constant stream of discussions on politics of global conflicts and consider the individuals caught in the fray. Repeated intellectual discussions fail to cultivate empathy for civilians and may desensitize us to the horrors faced by everyday people in these warzones. Noam and Moran helped remind a crowd of UVA students to engage in those high-level discussions while simultaneously considering the countless individual stories — from both sides — that are sure to emerge from war.
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