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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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Trump Open to Meeting Iran’s Leaders, Sees Chance of Nuclear Deal
US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
US President Donald Trump this week said he is open to meeting Iran’s supreme leader or president and that he thinks the two countries will strike a new deal on Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.
However, Trump, who in 2018 pulled the US out of a now moribund nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, repeated a threat of military action against Iran unless a new pact is swiftly reached to prevent it developing nuclear weapons.
Trump, in an April 22 interview with Time magazine published on Friday, said “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran” following indirect US-Iranian talks last week in which the side agreed to draw up a framework for a potential deal.
The Republican US president, speaking separately to reporters at the White House on Friday, reiterated his positive prognosis, saying: “Iran, I think, is going very well. We’ll see what happens.”
A US official said the discussions yielded “very good progress.”
Asked by Time whether he was open to meeting Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, an anti-Western hardliner who has the last say on all major state policies, or President Masoud Pezeshkian, Trump replied: “Sure.”
Expert-level talks are set to resume on Saturday in Oman, which has acted as intermediary between the longtime adversaries, with a third round of high-level nuclear discussions planned for the same day.
Israel, a close US ally and Iran’s major Middle East foe, has described the Islamic Republic’s escalating uranium enrichment program – a potential pathway to nuclear bombs – as an “existential threat.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for a complete dismantling of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, saying partial measures will not suffice to ensure Israel’s security.
Asked in the interview if he was concerned Netanyahu might drag the United States into a war with Iran, Trump said: “No.”
‘I’LL BE LEADING THE PACK’
However, when asked if the US would join a war against Iran should Israel take action, he responded: “I may go in very willingly if we can’t get a deal. If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack.”
In March, Iran responded to a letter from Trump in which he urged it to negotiate a new deal by stating it would not engage in direct talks under maximum pressure and military threats but was open to indirect negotiations, as in the past.
Although the current talks have been indirect and mediated by Oman, US and Iranian officials did speak face-to-face briefly following the first round on April 12.
The last known face-to-face negotiations between the two countries took place under former US President Barack Obama during diplomacy that led to the 2015 nuclear accord.
Western powers accuse Iran of harboring a clandestine agenda to develop nuclear weapons capability by enriching uranium to a high level of fissile purity, above what they say is justifiable for a civilian atomic energy program.
Tehran says its nuclear program is wholly peaceful. The 2015 deal temporarily curbed its uranium enrichment activity in exchange for relief from international sanctions, but Iran resumed and accelerated enrichment after the Trump walkout in 2018.
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Trump Poised to Offer Saudi Arabia Over $100 Billion Arms Package, Sources Say
US President Donald speaking in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, DC on March 3, 2025. Photo: Leah Millis via Reuters Connect
The United States is poised to offer Saudi Arabia an arms package worth well over $100 billion, six sources with direct knowledge of the issue told Reuters, saying the proposal was being lined up for announcement during US President Donald Trump‘s visit to the kingdom in May.
The offered package comes after the administration of former President Joe Biden unsuccessfully tried to finalize a defense pact with Riyadh as part of a broad deal that envisioned Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel.
The Biden proposal offered access to more advanced US weaponry in return for halting Chinese arms purchases and restricting Beijing’s investment in the country. Reuters could not establish if the Trump administration’s proposal includes similar requirements.
The White House and Saudi government communications office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A US Defense official said: “Our defense relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is stronger than ever under President Trump‘s leadership. Maintaining our security cooperation remains an important component of this partnership and we will continue to work with Saudi Arabia to address their defense needs.”
In his first term, Trump celebrated weapons sales to Saudi Arabia as good for US jobs.
Lockheed Martin Corp could supply a range of advanced weapons systems including C-130 transport aircraft, two of the sources said. One source said Lockheed would also supply missiles and radars.
RTX Corp, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies, is also expected to play a significant role in the package, which will include supplies from other major US defense contractors such as Boeing Co, Northrop Grumman Corp and General Atomics, said four of the sources.
All the sources declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
RTX, Northrop and General Atomics declined to comment. Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Lockheed Martin spokesperson said foreign military sales are government-to-government transactions. Questions about sales to foreign governments are best addressed by the US government.
Reuters could not immediately establish how many of the deals on offer were new. Many have been in the works for some time, two of the sources said. For example, the kingdom first requested information about General Atomics’ drones in 2018, they said. Over the past 12 months, a deal for $20 billion of General Atomics’ MQ-9B SeaGuardian-style drones and other aircraft came into focus, according to one of the sources.
Several executives from defense companies are considering traveling to the region as a part of the delegation, three of the sources said.
The US has long supplied Saudi Arabia with weapons. In 2017, Trump proposed approximately $110 billion of sales to the kingdom.
As of 2018, only $14.5 billion of sales had been initiated and Congress began to question the deals in light of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In 2021, under Biden, Congress imposed a ban on sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia over the Khashoggi killing and to pressure the kingdom to wind down its Yemen war, which had inflicted heavy civilian casualties.
Under US law, major international weapons deals must be reviewed by members of Congress before they are finalized.
The Biden administration began to soften its stance on Saudi Arabia in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine impacted global oil supplies. The ban on offensive weapons sales was lifted in 2024, as Washington worked more closely with Riyadh in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack to devise a plan for post-war Gaza.
A potential deal for Lockheed’s F-35 jets, which the kingdom has been reportedly interested in for years, is expected to be discussed, three of the sources said, while downplaying the chances for an F-35 deal being signed during the trip.
The United States guarantees that its close ally Israel receives more advanced American weapons than Arab states, giving it what is labeled a “Qualitative Military Edge” (QME) over its neighbors.
Israel has now owned F-35s for nine years, building multiple squadrons.
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Iran Summons Dutch Envoy to Protest Assassination Attempts Claim
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi looks on before a meeting with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, in Tehran, Iran, Aug. 26, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
The Iranian foreign ministry summoned the Dutch ambassador to Tehran on Friday, the official IRNA news agency reported, a day after the Netherlands called in Iran‘s envoy over suspicions that Iran was behind two assassination attempts.
An Iranian foreign ministry official described the Dutch accusation as “laughable” and based on “suspicions or assumptions,” according to IRNA.
“It is regrettable that the Dutch diplomatic apparatus acts so easily on speculations injected by its security bodies and the Zionist regime [Israel], and even summons the Iranian ambassador over such an absurd fabrication,” the official, Alireza Yousefi, was quoted as saying.
The Netherlands summoned Iran‘s ambassador after the Dutch intelligence agency, known as the AIVD, said in its annual report published on Thursday that it was likely Iran was behind two assassination attempts in the Netherlands and Spain.
Two men were arrested in June 2024 in the Dutch town of Haarlem after an assassination attempt on an Iranian residing in the country, the report said.
One of the suspects was also believed to have been behind the failed assassination attempt on Spanish politician and Iran critic Alejo Vidal-Quadras in Madrid in November 2023, it said.
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