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The Living Victims of October 7: The Mental Health Struggles of Massacre Survivors
The youth march calling for the return of the kidnapped in Gaza. Organized by the youth of Kfar Aza. December 27, 2023.
“I can’t call it my home right now,” Nira Shpak confessed to a captive audience in a Beverly Hills residence.
Nira — a lieutenant colonel in the Israeli reserves, with a 26-year military career and term in the Knesset under her belt — is rightfully nicknamed the Hero of Kfar Azza.
She was recalling the house that still stands in her kibbutz — the house where she raised her family and hosts her grandchildren. The house that she’s yet to return to. Nearly a year into the war, her community is dispersed throughout Israel, some residing in hotels and others making permanent decisions to relocate. Those decisions aren’t surprising. How do you go back to a place you thought you’d never get out of alive?
What hasn’t been nearly as reported is the slew of initiatives taking place to give communities like Kfar Azza the psychological tools to rebuild.
Nira, who took it upon herself to lead her community out of the trenches of October 7th, had left Israel twice during this war. First, to testify as a survivor at The Hague. Second, to push the UN to recognize the acts of sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas. Now, she found herself in Los Angeles, collaborating with an organization funded by fellow Israelis Liat Sade and Yifat Yeger to support her community’s psychological needs.
On October 7th, after Liat Sade, a Los Angeles-based entrepreneur, had gotten confirmation that her loved ones, including her three children, were safe, she and her husband became key connections for parents in the Diaspora trying to get their kids out of a war zone. Their resolve soon translated to raising funds for medical equipment and transporting it to the front lines, where IDF medics desperately needed it.
They were able to send roughly three million dollars in equipment in a matter of weeks. With this mission complete, Liat looked for other avenues for action.
As survivors started coming out to Los Angeles and sharing their stories, it became clear to Liat that people would not be able to rebuild unless they started from within.
Liat, who had been a lieutenant in the Israeli army and a Casualty Officer, was familiar with the lasting effects of PTSD. Liat had left the army after a helicopter crash in 1997 that killed 73 soldiers, including two of her closest friends. It took her years and becoming a mother to understand that she needed help processing this trauma. Fourteen years ago, she embarked on her first therapeutic journey, where she met Yifat Yeger, a psychotherapist specializing in trauma and resilience. Yifat had dedicated her life to melding psychological support with physical journeys meant to kickstart participants into their path of healing.
These kinds of programs are well known in Israel, a country that since its inception has had to grapple with severe trauma. Specifically crafted for women, the journey from 14 years ago worked for Liat, who still maintains close ties to the women she went with on her first journey. The model changed her life, inspiring her to become a permanent volunteer.
When Liat thought of how to help struggling kibbutzim communities most efficiently, she knew this was where she could have the most impact. “It’s not an obvious decision,” Liat admitted, “We must go with the method which we know has already proven itself.”
Just over a month into the war, Liat called Yifat, who had received several phone calls from survivors seeking psychological support. One of those calls had been from Nira, who wished to avoid speaking to a social worker at the hotel she was to stay at. Nira had a longstanding relationship with Yifat. She knew she could count on her to give her the necessary push to ask for help.
So, when Liat pitched the idea, Yifat was ready. “Let’s make it happen. Let’s save these communities.” That conversation would lead them to start Journey4Hope, a nonprofit organization designed to provide psychological support to Israel’s most recent survivors.
There are various mental health initiatives for October 7th survivors, from hospitals offering MDMA treatments to doctors traveling to Israel to perform electro-neurostimulation therapy. There has also been a wave of mental health professionals volunteering their time, and government programs. Nonetheless, Yifat worries that even if mental health professionals like herself work around the clock, there won’t be enough of them to help all those in need.
“We must use other innovation tools in order to do that. This tool is already proven on soldiers. Let’s fine-tune it and bring it to the communities.”
To understand the impact of these journeys, Yifat explains elements of trauma and how — based on her studies and those of others, like Gabor Maté — to arrive at proven antidotes. Trauma disrupts our daily routine; therefore, the days are structured and scheduled for you from the minute you wake up to the moment you rest your head, reminding you of consistency. To fight the feeling of helplessness trauma creates, we must also be reminded of our own competence, just like when Yifat realized she could overcome her fear of heights. The third element of trauma is feeling frozen in time or frozen in our emotions. To connect back to motion, it is essential that the participants reconnect with their bodies, whether it’s hiking in the desert or dancing together with the group, which brings us to the fourth element. These journeys are never taken alone. To combat the isolation of trauma, these journeys are taken in groups, which ultimately leads to lifelong friendships. Friendships that Nira and others have relied on in the aftermath of Israel’s darkest hour.
For all three women, community is the heart of their mission. Because of Nira’s connection to the journey model and Yifat and Liat, Kfar Azza will be the first community Journey4Hope supports through its work once it gathers sufficient funds, though they’ve already been able to assist b’nei mitzvot aged children of the kibbutzim communities of the Gaza envelope, who have not been able to mark their rite of passage.
The journey will tentatively help 25 to 30 women of Kfar Azza, including Nira. “The resilience of a community depends on the resilience of its women,” Yifat, with her years of expertise, proudly affirms. Though there is a sufficient amount of science to support this claim, one can’t help but think of Tzipporah and Miriam leading the Jewish people out of danger and into a space where they could begin to rebuild.
It will take years for the communities most impacted on October 7th to recover. The war after the war will be longer, and without psychological support. Nira fears her community will be running on empty. Activism has kept her, Liat, and Yifat going.
For Nira, it’s also a dream of perseverance and the hope that she can one day call her house her home again.
“We have to keep the light on in every place that evil forces want to destroy. I want to turn on the light in my home so that people in Gaza will see that I am here to stay.”
Jessica Ghitis is a Jewish-Colombian writer and educator based in Los Angeles, California. Having worked in entertainment for roughly nine years, Jessica has been pushing for fair coverage of Israel and October 7th in Latin American press. She currently works in education at the Museum of Tolerance, where she focuses on using storytelling to combat antisemitism and hate through dialogue and education. If you wish to learn more about this initiative, please visit https://journey4hope.com
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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