Israeli survivor of October 7 Hamas attack tells his story

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Lior Shitrit said that when he gets married, has children or goes through any of life’s important milestones, he will think of his friend Guy Simchi.

“He should still be here. He should be able to marry and have children. He was my best friend since he was 10,” Shitrit said. “He stayed outside and protected the shelter where all my friends were. He put up a very good fight, but then they sprayed oil and set fire to the room where he was.”

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Shitrit and Simchi, both 20, grew up together in the small town of Gedera in Israel, south of Tel Aviv. They both attended the Supernova music festival near the Gaza border on October 7. Only Shitrit survived, having experienced “many miracles”, she told a reporter at the CJA Federation building in Snowdon on Monday.

Shitrit and three other survivors of the attack (the worst in Israel’s history) were in Montreal telling harrowing stories of that day. Approximately 1,200 Israeli citizens were killed and another 250 were taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists who stormed security gates along the Gaza Strip.

Shitrit said he went to the festival with several of his friends around midnight. He was dancing and enjoying the music, when suddenly the music stopped and thousands of missiles flew over his head in an attack that lasted more than 30 minutes.

“We were sitting by a tree and we didn’t know what to do,” Shitrit said. “We were listening to music on our phone and waiting for the attack to stop. People were panicking around us, but my friends and I were calm.”

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Shitrit said he knew the area because he had walked there before, so he walked with his friends to Kibbutz Re’im and found several others from the festival who were there.

“We thought it would stop, but the rockets continued to be launched towards Israel,” he said. “We never dreamed there would be terrorists at the festival massacring people who simply came to dance.”

Shitrit huddled in a bomb shelter whose door had no lock. He and the approximately 20 people accompanying him held the door with all their strength while the terrorists tried to open it. At one point, one of them stuck his gun in the door of the shelter and fired, hitting one of the men hiding with Shitrit in his leg.

He acted quickly to stop the man’s bleeding with a belt and an iPhone, which he used to create a tourniquet.

The group huddled inside the shelter for about six hours, listening to the terrorists argue among themselves and listening to others shoot and kill people throughout the kibbutz.

At one point, the group had to open a window because they were running out of air. Eventually, the soldiers saved them, but Shitrit stayed with the wounded man for hours.

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“I went outside during the worst part of the attack,” he said. “I saw how they threw grenades. “I saw some dead people lying on the ground and I reached the doctor.”

Speaking on behalf of the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Eta Yudin said it is important for survivors of the attack to tell their stories, because many people are not aware of the magnitude of the attacks.

“This is a story that really hasn’t been heard enough,” Yudin said. “I think people don’t really understand what happened on October 7th. The world changed in many ways, certainly for the Jewish community that day. For many, October 7th is still today, and I think part of understanding world events is listening to the people who are affected by those events. There are still hostages being held, including a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old, and we cannot allow that (to continue).

“My heart breaks for all civilians, both Palestinians and Israelis,” he said.

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