Hamas massacre in 2023: Living a nightmare - opinion

In March 2018, I was commissioned by the International Fellowship of Christian and Jews (IFCJ) to go to Jordan to interview Iraqi Christian refugees who had been persecuted by ISIS. IFCJ was launching a campaign to help these refugees, and they wanted first-hand stories.

We were a team of four that included IFCJ’s Minorities Director Safwan Marich; talented photographer and videographer Arik Shraga; and the representative of a humanitarian organization, who was also our guide and interpreter. 

I did not know what to expect when I embarked on this two-day trip. Little did I know that five years later, these stories would be multiplied in ferocity by Hamas against my own people in my homeland. 

Iraqi Christians fled Iraq because of ISIS

The first person we interviewed was an 80-year-old woman who had been a respected lecturer of Greek philosophy at the University of Baghdad [in Iraq]. We walked down the stairs in a damp hallway that smelled of mold until we came to her apartment. It was dark, had one bed, and the walls were peeling. A man was sitting on the couch, wailing in a high-pitched voice. Two other women in their 50s – mentally challenged as we later learned  – sat staring into space. 

The woman told us that these were her nieces and nephew, whom she had been caring for over the past 30 years. When ISIS came, they wanted to take her nephew, strap explosives on him, and use him as a suicide bomber. She begged them to leave. They did, but she knew that they would be back. She managed to escape with her wards to Jordan with the assistance of her priest, carrying nothing but the clothes on their backs. 

The next visit was to a formerly well-to-do family from a Christian village near the Iraqi city of Mosul. Their 16-year-old daughter, who spoke fluent English, told us of the night ISIS terrorists stormed their village and the Iraqi soldiers fled. With tears in her eyes, she recited the ultimatum the terrorists gave the villagers: “Convert to Islam and fight with ISIS, flee within the hour, or stay and be slaughtered.”

The entire village population fled. In the morning, they heard that ISIS had razed their village. The family lived hand-to-mouth for two years on the run from ISIS until they were able to escape to Jordan. 

The story of a teenager who was set on fire and survived was the hardest to hear. He agreed to speak to us, but the third-degree burns all over his body spoke louder than words. 

He was going home one night after closing his father’s restaurant. His mini-bike wasn’t working, so he walked it home. When he arrived, three men approached him, threw dirty oil on him, and lit him on fire. 

“They told him that as a Christian, he didn’t deserve to be burned in clean oil,” his mother told us. When his parents heard from neighbors that the men had come back looking for their son, they snuck him out of the hospital and hid in a neighboring town until they were able to escape to Jordan.

I heard more stories of extreme torture. I both recorded and wrote down everything. I was appalled at what I heard. Never in my worst nightmare could I have imagined it happening to us in Israel. 

But it did.

Hamas massacre: A nightmare in Israel

At 6:30 a.m. on October 7, Shabbat and Simchat Torah, one of the happiest days on the Jewish calendar, the world changed for Israelis. 

We woke up to a vicious attack by Hamas on the Gaza perimeter communities and the towns of Sderot and Ofakim. 

When my son, who lives 30 minutes away from us in Jerusalem, walked in the door at 11 a.m. (we are religiously observant and don’t drive on Shabbat) in full army uniform and told us that there was a war and he had been called to reserve duty, my heart sank. He told us that this was like nothing we had ever seen before. He was right.  

Over 1,400 of our fellow citizens were viciously murdered. More than 5,400 people were wounded. At last count, 235 innocent men, women, seniors, and children were brutally kidnapped and are being held captive in Gaza.

Like all Israelis, I was numb with pain. I felt physically ill from the ruthless violence. I could not watch the videos of beautiful people, young and old, subjected to such terror. It could have been me. It could have been my children and young grandchildren.

Israel woke up to a new reality

Israel woke up to a new reality. A reality in which we need to destroy Hamas – not with kid gloves as in the past but with the full force of our army. We live in a dangerous neighborhood, and the belief that our enemies can be appeased has been shattered. 

The intensity of the hatred for Jews is overwhelming. After the horror of the Holocaust, we thought, “Never again.” After the existential threat to Israel’s existence from the Yom Kippur War, we thought, “Never again.” But here we are, 2023, and yes, it has happened again. 

Israel must win. 

We have no choice. 

We have nowhere else to go, as Golda Meir once whispered to then-senator Joe Biden.

What this war has shown us is that Hamas is ISIS. If the world continues to ignore this fundamental Islamic ideology, Israel will not be the only Western democracy to be attacked: It will continue to spread to Western Europe, the United States, and Australia. 

Already, hundreds of thousands of people are protesting in these countries in favor of Hamas and blaming the atrocities on Israel. I am shocked at the lack of moral clarity in this world. I am appalled at the rising antisemitism. 

But the Israeli spirit is strong, and the people in this country are truly awe-inspiring. I am sure that we will defeat our enemies. 

As I look back on the interviews I did in Jordan and the reality we are in now, the following words – I believe first penned by German pastor Martin Niemöller after World War II – quoted frequently in the ensuing years, come to mind: 

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.” 

The writer made aliyah in 1987. She is a marcom and resource development consultant who has been working with Israeli and international nonprofits for 35 years.