{"id":106900,"date":"2025-10-07T15:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T15:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/106900\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T15:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T15:08:09","slug":"two-years-after-the-october-7th-attack-israeli-families-still-live-in-its-shadow-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/106900\/","title":{"rendered":"Two years after the October 7th attack, Israeli families still live in its shadow \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the night of Friday, October 6th, 2023, sisters Norelle and Roya Manzuri gathered with their family for a festive meal to mark the Jewish festival of Simchat Torah. As they celebrated, the conversation turned to Norelle\u2019s wedding plans \u2013 at 25, she was engaged to marry Amit Cohen the following year. Her younger sister Roya (22) shared in the excitement.<\/p>\n

After dinner, the dual US-Israeli citizens prepared to drive south from Hod Hasharon, a city in the centre of Israel<\/a>, to the Nova music festival with Amit and friends. The outdoor venue near Kibbutz Re\u2019im lay just kilometres from the Gaza<\/a> border. As they left, their mother Sigal gave Amit a simple instruction: look after the girls.<\/p>\n

She would never see her daughters again.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 6:29 we were awakened by sirens. We called the girls and they were lying down covering their heads as the rockets flew in. Ten minutes later Norelle called us and said they had managed to reach their car,\u201d recalls Sigal. <\/p>\n

But the road north towards home was blocked as Hamas gunmen were in the area shooting at vehicles. The road towards Kibbutz Re\u2019im was also blocked so the three of them, along with two other friends in the car, including Gal, the girls\u2019 cousin, ran into a roadside bomb shelter close to the kibbutz. <\/p>\n

The tiny concrete shelter was packed with young revellers escaping from the festival. It was too dangerous to leave the shelter as Hamas gunmen were everywhere by now.<\/p>\n

\"SistersSisters Roya (22) and Norelle Manzuri (25) were among the 378 people killed at the Nova festival on October 7th, 2023 <\/p>\n

The last phone contact with the girls was at 7:39. The gunmen repeatedly opened fired into the shelter and tried to set it alight. Amit was hit in the head and was killed. <\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until close to noon that the first two Israeli soldiers arrived. Their assessment was that everyone inside the shelter was dead but there were survivors, some of whom were in and out of consciousness. The soldiers began checking the pulses of the bodies. <\/p>\n

Gal, buried beneath a pile of bodies, regained consciousness and was one of 12 survivors out of the 40 people packed into the bomb shelter.<\/p>\n

\"ThereThere were 12 survivors out of the 40 people packed into this bomb shelter <\/p>\n

The girls\u2019 father reached Beersheba\u2019s Soroka hospital at 2pm but it was chaos there with hundreds of wounded soldiers and civilians arriving. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe met Gal in the hospital and only then we understood this was something much, much bigger. We knew deep inside there wouldn\u2019t be a happy ending for us. But parents never give up on their children until you get the knock on the door,\u201d recounted Sigal.<\/p>\n

The parents searched the festival site and the surrounding fields and gave DNA samples to the authorities. \u201cWe kind of hoped they had been kidnapped to Gaza because this was our only hope they would be alive,\u201d says Sigal. \u201cMaybe the fact they had US citizenship would help.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SigalSigal Manzuri with a picture of her daughters <\/p>\n

A few days later, Amit\u2019s parents were informed he had been killed. The Manzuri family got their first knock on the door on Wednesday morning, four days later, informing them that Roya\u2019s body had been positively identified. During the Shiva, the traditional Jewish seven-day mourning period, they got the second knock on the door, informing them of a positive identification had also been received for Norelle.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of watching your girls build a new chapter in life, with a wedding around the corner and maybe grandchildren around the corner, now everything seems meaningless,\u201d Sigal said. \u201cSo I made it my life mission to continue their legacy, to make sure nobody will ever forget what happened on October 7th<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Sigal believes Israel cannot really move forward until all the 48 hostages are returned and this message is repeated by all the bereaved relatives. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are praying they will come back soon and the war will stop. Only then can we begin our healing process and start to rebuild our country. Not just to live but to be able to laugh and feel joy again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SistersSisters Roya (22) and Norelle Manzuri (25) <\/p>\n

Of the 1,200 people killed on October 7th, 378 were at the Nova festival.<\/p>\n

Twin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman were 26 years old when Hamas militants stormed their kibbutz on October 7th. Now 28, they remain captive in Gaza \u2013 two of just 20 hostages believed to still be alive. Kibbutz Kfar Aza sits barely a kilometre from the Gaza border. <\/p>\n

From the charred remains of the twins\u2019 homes, the eastern neighbourhoods of Gaza City are clearly visible across the fields.<\/p>\n

\"TwoTwo women stand with a sign identifying Israeli hostages Ziv and Gali Berman during a demonstration by families of hostages taken captive in the Gaza Strip since the October 7th attacks. Photograph: Jack Guez\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Liran, their eldest brother, says growing up in the Gaza periphery was \u201c95 per cent heaven and 5 per cent hell\u201d. The trouble started after the Hamas takeover of the coastal enclave in 2007, he says, but the previous rounds of cross-border exchanges of fire lasted only a few weeks at most.<\/p>\n

At 7:15am on October 7th, Liran, who lives in northern Israel, saw an image on his phone of a white pickup truck, full of Hamas gunmen, in the border town of Sderot. \u201cI realised immediately that this was something new but we still didn\u2019t know the scope of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liran is still on the Kfar Aza WhatsApp group that was soon full of messages from residents reporting gunfire inside the community and shouting in Arabic. Some of the Hamas gunmen arrived on hang gliders.<\/p>\n

Ziv entered his safe room. Gali took a kitchen knife and went to his friend and neighbour Emily Damari, to be with her in her safe room. The last messages the brothers sent were at 9:30. The army arrived later on Saturday but the fighting on Kfar Aza continued until Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Eleven days after October 7th, the army confirmed that both brothers had been kidnapped to Gaza. Emily was also kidnapped but was released in January.<\/p>\n

\"SigalSigal Manzuri visits the marker of her daughters Norelle and Roya who were killed during the October 7th attacks at the Nova music festival. Photograph: Amir Levy\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

The militants drove all three in Emily\u2019s car across the fields to Gaza, a 15-minute drive, straight to Gaza City\u2019s Shifa hospital, where Emily, who lost three fingers in the gunfire, was treated. The brothers were taken to the Hamas tunnels beneath the hospital and separated.<\/p>\n

Liran went to 11 funerals in the two weeks after October 7th. Sixty-two people were killed on Kfar Aza and 19 were kidnapped, two of whom were shot dead accidentally by Israeli troops.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew Hamas would keep Gali and Ziv until last because they are young and not fathers. We know from other hostages that they were moved around a lot, above and beneath ground, and were last confirmed alive in February.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liran has spent the last two years travelling the world, raising awareness over the plight of his brothers and advocating for their release.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow they are talking about a final deal to bring the last 48 back,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the international community on October 8th had unanimously condemned and put pressure on Hamas, including Arab countries, then everyone could have been home by now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LiranLiran Berman, brother of Israeli hostages Gali and Ziv Berman speaks during a solidarity protest, calling for an end to the war and the release of all remaining hostages. Photograph: Chris McGrath\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Forty-two hostages were killed during captivity in Gaza \u2013 some by their captors, some from Israeli fire. \u201cI fear for their lives every time I hear the bombing. We can hear it and even feel the vibration on the floor here on the kibbutz, so imagine what are they going through?\u201d<\/p>\n

Kfar Aza residents were evacuated after October 7th and are expected to return next year but Liran believes only about half will do so. A lot depends on the ceasefire and how safe the border will be.<\/p>\n

Two years after October 7th Israel remains a broken country, still at war and desperately seeking closure for the loss and pain. The first essential step in this process is a ceasefire that will bring all the hostages home and end the fighting. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Explainer: How close to ending is the war in Gaza?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the night of Friday, October 6th, 2023, sisters Norelle and Roya Manzuri gathered with their family for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,3761,69,6,71,3857,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-106900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-gaza-strip","13":"tag-hamas","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-israel-hamas-conflict","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories","24":"tag-world","25":"tag-world-news","26":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}