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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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Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi lays a wreath as he visits the burial site of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, June 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A member of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli air strike on Tehran alongside a member of an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group, a senior Lebanese security source told Reuters and the Iraqi group said on Saturday.
The source identified the Hezbollah member as Abu Ali Khalil, who had served as a bodyguard for Hezbollah’s slain chief Hassan Nasrallah. The source said Khalil had been on a religious pilgrimage to Iraq when he met up with a member of the Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada group.
They traveled together to Tehran and were both killed in an Israeli strike there, along with Khalil’s son, the senior security source said. Hezbollah has not joined in Iran’s air strikes against Israel from Lebanon.
Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada published a statement confirming that both the head of its security unit and Khalil had been killed in an Israeli strike.
Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli aerial attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs in September.
Israel and Iran have been trading strikes for nine consecutive days since Israel launched attacks on Iran, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran has said it does not seek nuclear weapons.
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Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip

Israeli soldiers operate during a ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, July 3, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), in cooperation with the General Security Service (Shin Bet), announced on Friday the killing of Ibrahim Abu Shamala, a senior financial official in Hamas’ military wing.
The operation took place on June 17th in the central Gaza Strip.
Abu Shamala held several key positions, including financial officer for Hamas’ military wing and assistant to Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing until his elimination in March 2024.
He was responsible for managing all the financial resources of Hamas’ military wing in Gaza, overseeing the planning and execution of the group’s war budget. This involved handling and smuggling millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip to fund Hamas’ military operations.
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Report: Wary of Assassination by Israel, Khamenei Names 3 Potential Successors

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei named three senior clerics as candidates to succeed him should he be killed, the New York Times reported on Saturday citing unnamed Iranian officials. It is understood the Ayatollah fears he could be assassinated in the coming days.
Khamenei reportedly mostly speaks with his commanders through a trusted aide now, suspending electronic communications.
Khamenei has designated three senior religious figures as candidates to replace him as well as choosing successors in the military chain of command in the likely event that additional senior officials be eliminated.
Earlier on Saturday Israel confirmed the elimination of Saeed Izadi and Bhanam Shahriari.
Shahriari, head of Iran’s Quds Force Weapons Transfer Unit, responsible for arming Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, was killed in an Israeli airstrike over 1,000 km from Israel in western Iran.
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