(Oct. 9, 2026 / The Focus Project)
Stories of bravery and resilience told by the survivors and families of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, demonstrate the tenacious spirit of Israelis even as more graphic details of the day’s horrors continue to emerge.
That same spirit was on full display on Sept. 30 as brave airline passengers and a wounded pilot swiftly united to avert what could have become Israel’s 9/11.
Bearing witness: Survivors refuse to let the truth be buried
On the morning of the massacre, Eli Sharabi was dragged out of his home at Kibbutz Be’eri and held in a Gaza tunnel for 491 days—shackled, starved and beaten. His wife and teenage daughters were murdered, and his brother was killed in captivity. Sharabi came home emaciated and then wrote the first memoir published by a released Israeli hostage. He called it: “My testimony, a story of my survival, written so others could bear witness.”
He hosted Israel’s national memorial ceremony for the Oct. 7 families.
This year, families are sharing the last messages they received that ominous morning. Noam Peri posted the message her mother sent, saying terrorists had broken into their home and taken her father; he was later murdered in captivity. Shir Matias posted one simple message: “Dad and Mom are dead.”
The families are asking the public to share their messages and tell their stories, even three years later.
Evyatar David was dancing at the Nova music festival when he was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists and starved in a tunnel for more than two years. He was filmed digging what his captors told him would be his own grave. The 25-year-old, who suffers from PTSD, has barely spoken publicly since being released. “That skinny guy with the spoon digging a grave is still with me,” he said, describing flashbacks that return him to the tunnel, despite now being back home.
Surviving captivity was one battle. Rehabilitation is another one he intends to win.
Emily Damari recently shared unreleased photos of her kidnapping. Shot multiple times and abducted by terrorists from Kibbutz Kfar Aza at age 26, she was taken to Gaza’s Shifa Hospital. She was photographed wearing an Islamic hijab while lying on the floor. Emily, known for her three-finger pose, described the scene: “I’m in a disgusting room full of blood. There is a corpse on the floor next to me. A ‘doctor’ approaches and introduces himself as Dr. Hamas, with 10 more monsters with Kalashnikovs pointed at my head. The fact that I’m here today is a miracle.” She married her partner in Tel Aviv in August, with other freed hostages among their guests.
Almog Sarusi, also 26, was executed in a Hamas tunnel in Rafah, in the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip, 11 months after he was kidnapped from Nova. On Yom Kippur, his parents welcomed a son conceived from eggs frozen 25 years ago. They named him Lavi, meaning “lion.” Yigal Sarusi, 60, stated that “we still have the pain, and that pain will never end. We cry, but we have joy now.”
Remembering three years after the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Credit: Courtesy of StandWithUs.
Activists mark Oct. 7 massacres by honoring the killers
While Israelis and Jews worldwide mourn loved ones, activist groups have turned the Oct. 7 anniversary into a worldwide anti-Israel protest. At least 262 events in 37 countries have been scheduled between Oct. 1 and Oct. 14.
In Seattle, “Long live Oct. 7” was recently spray-painted in red across the welcome sign at Be’er Sheva Park, named for Seattle’s sister city in Israel. Also scrawled were “Death to Israel” and an inverted red triangle, originally used by Hamas in propaganda videos and adopted by protesters. The park is located near an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood.
Days later, on Oct. 6, a former Columbia University professor who wrote four days after the massacre that he was “with Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad” was scheduled to address students at the University of California, Berkeley. The on-campus event sponsor is Students for Justice in Palestine. His Zoom speech is promoted as part of the “Al Aqsa Flood Anniversary Talks,” the operational name Hamas used for its attack.
Many Jews are fearful of violence on or near the anniversary. German prosecutors recently charged seven suspected Hamas members for a plot targeting Jews, Zionists and Israelis. The suspects were found in possession of an automatic rifle, 13 guns and 700 bullets. In the United Kingdom, two Iranians were charged with surveilling a synagogue for a bomb attack—the same Manchester synagogue attacked by a jihadist last Yom Kippur that resulted in two deaths.
Conspiracy theorists: Same reflex, three years later
The same lies that followed Oct. 7 did not wait for an anniversary. They resurfaced at 30,000 feet over the Middle East within 67 minutes of a jihadist trying to bring down a plane mostly full of Israeli passengers.
The co-pilot of a flydubai flight to Tel Aviv attacked the captain with the plane’s emergency axe, sending the aircraft into a harrowing nosedive. The co-pilot later told investigators he intended to crash the plane into Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport, causing mass casualties.
Before an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, activists and influencers who agree on almost nothing else other than their hatred of Jews were promoting the same false narrative. White supremacist and groyper Nick Fuentes called the attack “false-flag terrorism.” Ana Kasparian, a host at the far-left outlet, The Young Turks, told an audience of 7 million that she found the story “super fishy.”
Within two days, the Anti-Defamation League had counted at least 25,000 posts on X echoing the same false claims. The Combat Antisemitism Movement reported that users blamed the Mossad, the Israeli prime minister, Zionists or Jews. The group said the accusation did not form in response to the incident: “It is part of a script that already exists sitting ready for use whenever opportunities arise.”
Ordinary passengers stopped a mass murderer
Miracles and heroism saved lives and captured the world’s attention on Sept 30. Capt. Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, was stabbed repeatedly by the radicalized jihadist co-pilot and yet still managed to release the cockpit door. “I could feel that the aircraft was plunging, and I said to myself while I was getting beaten, ‘This is the last push, Smit. Do it; the door is right there,’” he told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi from his hospital bed. “I was fighting for my own life, but at the same time I knew I was not going to let others die.”
Yaniv Hayoun, an Israeli plumber, was among the first through the door. He held the attacker in a chokehold, dragged him out, then grabbed the controls and pulled the plane out of its nosedive. He learned how to respond from watching Air Crash Investigation. Two standby pilots on board took over the controls and safely landed the plane in Saudi Arabia.
Israel’s prime minister invited the plane’s captain and India’s prime minister to light a torch at Israel’s next Independence Day ceremony, a rare privilege for non-Jews. Five passengers will receive Israel’s award for civilian heroism.
Points to consider:
1. Oct. 7 survivors are ensuring the truth outlasts the lies.
Hostages, survivors and their families are still telling their stories. Omri Miran is leading gatherings where he tells what happened to him, and Sagui Dekel-Chen came home and performed the songs he wrote in captivity. Video testimonies allow the survivors to keep their memories intact and put the truth in front of people who have only heard the lies.
2. Conspiracy theorists always blame Jews despite evidence in plain sight.
Hamas filmed its own massacre on Oct. 7 and broadcast it. The deniers immediately called the footage staged and the photographs of murdered families fake. The same antisemitic reflex met the flydubai attack. The plane transmitted the hijacking signal and passengers had already filmed the bloodied captain. None of it mattered to the haters who immediately decided that Israel had staged the attack on itself. Antisemites do not examine evidence and then draw conclusions; they start at the Jews and work backward.
3. Terrorism aimed at Jews does not discriminate among its victims.
The captain who was stabbed trying to save the flydubai flight is Indian, the flight crew was Emirati. Not all of the passengers were Israelis. It was the same on Oct. 7. Not everyone murdered in southern Israel was Jewish or Israeli. The Palestinian terrorists murdered victims of many faiths from dozens of countries. Awad Darawshe, a 23-year-old Israeli Arab paramedic, was working at the Nova music festival. His friends begged him to leave, but he stayed to treat the wounded and was murdered. Terrorists do not check identity cards or passports when intentionally shooting at everyone in their path.
4. Jews and non-Jews fought side by side heroically to prevent a terror attack
The individuals who saved flydubai flight had nothing in common except a seat on the same plane: an Indian captain, an Israeli plumber, off-duty pilots and passengers who had never met. None of them had any training for this situation, and none of them had to step up. They all displayed bravery, courage and heroism. That is what happened in the air that day—not the staged operation the antisemites invented within the hour.