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New Play Opening in NY Recounts Verbatim Testimonies From Oct. 7 Survivors, Families of Victims

Phelim McAleer speaking to civilians in Israel affected by the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in a trailer for the play “October 7.” Photo: YouTube screenshot

A trailer was released on Wednesday for a play opening in New York next month that is comprised entirely of eyewitness accounts of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel using only the actual words of survivors and families of victims.

The play, titled October 7, was produced by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, two Irish documentary filmmakers, screenwriters, New York Times best-selling authors, and veteran investigative journalists. The married couple traveled to Israel in November to interview those affected by the deadly massacre in southern Israel, in which roughly 1,200 people were slaughtered by Hamas terrorists who also took more than 200 others as hostages back to the Gaza Strip. McAleer and McElhinney traveled throughout Israel for roughly three weeks, speaking to survivors and also families of victims about how they went about their day on Oct. 6 and how their lives changed the following morning.

“We’ve covered many shocking stories but nothing comes close to what the men, women, and children of Israel faced [on Oct. 7],” McElhinney said in the trailer for the play, which provides first-hand witness accounts of what happened in their own words, without editing. “The world wants you to forget about what happened that day. The day that everything changed. We refuse to let that happen.”

McAleer added: “We’ll bring you the truth they don’t want you to hear.”

The filmmakers debuted the trailer for October 7 during the Wednesday episode of their podcast, The Ann and Phelim Scoop. McAleer also explained their desire for wanting to make the play.

“When we were in Ireland and in Europe — and even since [Oct. 7] — we’ve noticed that everyone wants to talk about Gaza, even on Oct. 8,” he said. “They didn’t want to talk about Oct. 7. They don’t want to talk about Oct. 7. Which is the exact reason why we say, ‘You should talk about Oct. 7.’ Because there was a ceasefire on Oct. 6, do you remember that? There would be no need for a ceasefire [now] if it wasn’t for Oct. 7 [and] if the hostages were released. There would be no need for a ceasefire if Hamas surrendered. But, they’re not going to do that. So we want people to remember, as they say in Hollywood, the ‘origin story’ for the war in Gaza.”

Rehearsals have began for the play, and the production is almost fully cast. McAleer said that during a recent table read with actors in New York, “most of the actors were crying at the end.”

“They were laughing too,” he added. ‘There’s a lot of humor. I know everyone finds humor in the darkest places, but I tell you, the Jewish people, they’ve had a lot of dark places but, boy, do they find humor. So there’s even jokes in [the play]. And I didn’t write the jokes. The play is 100 percent verbatim. It’s the voices of people who lived through Israel’s darkest day.”

When they first announced October 7 on their podcast in late March, McElhinney said the play will be filmed and available to those who cannot attend the show in-person. The play will additionally travel in the fall to “every Ivy League college that needs to know the truth about Oct. 7,” McAleer said, such as Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania.

“Ultimately this play is very uplifting,” McElhinney explained. “These people are extraordinary. All these different people, Israelis, who had survived, are heroes from every kind of walk of life.”

October 7 will run from May 2 – June 16 at the Actors Temple Theatre in New York City.

The post New Play Opening in NY Recounts Verbatim Testimonies From Oct. 7 Survivors, Families of Victims first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Kurdish-led SDF Say Five Members Killed During Attack by Islamic State in Syria

Islamic State slogans painted along the walls of the tunnel was used by Islamic State militants as an underground training camp in the hillside overlooking Mosul, Iraq, March 4, 2017. Photo: via Reuters Connect.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said on Sunday that five of its members had been killed during an attack by Islamic State militants on a checkpoint in eastern Syria’s Deir el-Zor on July 31.

The SDF was the main fighting force allied to the United States in Syria during fighting that defeated Islamic State in 2019 after the group declared a caliphate across swathes of Syria and Iraq.

The Islamic State has been trying to stage a comeback in the Middle East, the West and Asia. Deir el-Zor city was captured by Islamic State in 2014, but the Syrian army retook it in 2017.

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Armed Groups Attack Security Force Personnel in Syria’s Sweida, Killing One, State TV Reports

People ride a motorcycle past a burned-out military vehicle, following deadly clashes between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes, and government forces, in Syria’s predominantly Druze city of Sweida, Syria, July 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

Armed groups attacked personnel from Syria’s internal security forces in Sweida, killing one member and wounding others, and fired shells at several villages in the violence-hit southern province, state-run Ekhbariya TV reported on Sunday.

The report cited a security source as saying the armed groups had violated the ceasefire agreed in the predominantly Druze region, where factional bloodshed killed hundreds of people last month.

Violence in Sweida erupted on July 13 between tribal fighters and Druze factions. Government forces were sent to quell the fighting, but the bloodshed worsened, and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops in the name of the Druze.

The Druze are a minority offshoot of Islam with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Sweida province is predominantly Druze but is also home to Sunni tribes, and the communities have had long-standing tensions over land and other resources.

A US-brokered truce ended the fighting, which had raged in Sweida city and surrounding towns for nearly a week. Syria said it would investigate the clashes, setting up a committee to investigate the attacks.

The Sweida bloodshed last month was a major test for interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, after a wave of sectarian violence in March that killed hundreds of Alawite citizens in the coastal region.

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Netanyahu Urges Red Cross to Aid Gaza Hostages

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he spoke with the International Red Cross’s regional head, Julien Lerisson, and requested his involvement in providing food and medical care to hostages held in Gaza.

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