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<\/a>\n\t\tFormer hostage Emily Damari arriving back in Israel in January 2025 (Avishag Shaar-Yashuv)<\/p>\n
On the morning of Saturday, October 7, 2023, Shaar-Yashuv, who is religiously observant and doesn\u2019t use the phone on Shabbat, didn\u2019t know until much later that day about the Hamas massacre unfolding in the south.<\/p>\n
\t The Hamas-led terror invasion of southern Israel by land, air and sea saw some 1,200 people slaughtered and 251 abducted to the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n \t \u201cI only saw my husband later that afternoon, and when he told me a war had broken out, I didn\u2019t really know what he meant. I couldn\u2019t process what he was telling me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Shaar-Yashuv only found out on Sunday that her close friends, the Koren family (Chen Koren\u2019s in-laws), had survived the attack on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, but that the Kutz family<\/a>, Aviv and Livnat Kutz, their daughter, Rotem, and sons, Yonatan and Yiftach, were found dead on a bed embracing each other in their Kfar Aza home.<\/p>\n \t She met both families through the world of photography and had long since become friends.<\/p>\n \u201cIt prepared me for having to deal with a lot of things like that, things that were simply unbearable,\u201d said Shaar-Yashuv.<\/p>\n \t Shaar-Yashuv headed south after October 7 to photograph what happened, recording the devastation in the kibbutzim, capturing reservists heading to war, witnessing the pain and anguish at an endless number of funerals, including those of people she knew and loved, such as the Kutzes.<\/p>\n \t Now 35, she had been working as a photographer since her late teens, when she sold her first photos to Ynet, becoming their photographer in Haifa and the north.<\/p>\n \t Shaar-Yashuv soon found herself covering the deadly 2010 Carmel forest fire, and described it as her first time \u201crunning to the place that everyone is running away from,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a dark realization, but I felt deeply engrossed in it; it offered me a deeper understanding of this profession I was discovering.\u201d<\/p>\n \t A New York Times editor saw Shaar-Yashuv\u2019s work and contacted her, asking her to be in touch with their Middle East editors.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought he was just being polite, but he sent me an email that said their editor was waiting to hear from me,\u201d said Shaar-Yashuv.<\/p>\n \t Though Shaar-Yashuv is not as comfortable in English, she screwed up her courage and responded, and from that point on, began working with the paper on a freelance basis.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have any professional training, just my portfolio, and I\u2019m a Sabbath observer and not available for 25 hours a week, but they accept that limitation and honor it,\u201d said Shaar-Yashuv.<\/p>\n \t Shaar-Yashuv was primarily shooting portraits for The New York Times features, but the work became more news-focused when the judicial overhaul began in Israel in 2023, with massive protests on the streets of Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n \t \u201cThe work with The New York Times gives me the sense that I have someone backing me, and in a situation like this war, it\u2019s very important to have that,\u201d said Shaar-Yashuv. \u201cThey told me that if something feels too dangerous or unsafe, don\u2019t do it, and I never heard that from an Israeli paper. It allowed me a safer space to work.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Now, nearly two and a half years later, after the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, Shaar-Yashuv is still covering the hostages, chronicling their stories and their return to everyday life.<\/p>\n \t \u201cI pushed things off, I postponed my life and put it on hold, because you put everything into documenting this story,\u201d said Shaar-Yashuv.<\/p>\n She realizes the emotional price she paid over the last two years, and is slowly allowing herself a return to some of her other projects, including her other Instagram page that displays images of cakes and other confections, part of \u201cUgaleshabat\u201d<\/a> (\u201cCake for Shabbat\u201d), Shaar-Yashuv\u2019s coffee table book published before October 7.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\n\t\tHostage Ziv Berman is released from Hamas captivity and brought home to Israel on October 13, 2025 (Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times)<\/p>\n<\/a>
\n\t\tIDF soldiers at the emerging memorial for those killed at the Nova rave on October 7, 2023 (Avishag Shaar-Yashuv)<\/p>\n<\/a>
\n\t\tIsraeli soldier lights a cigarette in an artillery unit near the Gaza border on November 2, 2023 (Avishag Shar-Yashuv for The New York Times)<\/p>\n<\/a>
\n\t\tThe funeral for the five members of the Kutz family in Gan Yavne on October 17, 2023. (Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for the New York Times)<\/p>\n<\/a>
\n\t\tHila Fakliro, a survivor of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack watching the video he took when fleeing from\u00a0the\u00a0terrorists, photographed on October 11, 2023. (Avishag Shaar-Yashuv)<\/p>\n<\/a>
\n\t\tUltra-Orthodox young men look over the scene of a damaged building and school hit by an Iranian missile strike in Bnei Brak on June 16, 2025 (Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times)<\/p>\n<\/a>
\n\t\tAvishag Shaar-Yashuv\u2019s image of fires being put out across Israel. (Courtesy)<\/p>\n<\/a>
\n\t\tIsraelis take shelter in June 2025 during a rocket strike from Iran (Avishag Shaar-Yashuv)<\/p>\n<\/a>
\n\t\tDuring the 2023 anti-government, anti-judicial overhaul protests. (Avishag Shaar-Yashuv)<\/p>\n<\/a>
\n\t\tAt an anti-government rally in Tel Aviv in March 2023. (Avishag Shaar-Yashuv)<\/p>\n<\/a>
\n\t\tThis photo of Stav Nitzan, 8, a survivor of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack was taken at Kibbutz Maale HaHamisha on October 22, 2023, and won Shaar-Yashuv first prize in UNICEF\u2019s 2024 Photo of the Year (Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The\u00a0New\u00a0York\u00a0Times)<\/p>\n<\/a>
\n\t\tPeople hanging out near the Tel Aviv beach after the ceasefire between Iran and Israel took effect on June 24, 2025 (Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times)<\/p>\n