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October 7 Victims' Accounts of What They Endured at the Hands of Hamas
(Mail on Sunday-UK) Imogen Garfinkel - Over two years after the terrorist attack that triggered the Israel-Gaza war, October 7 survivors are attempting to heal by recounting the memories that still keep them up at night. Recounting her story at the Nova Exhibition in London on Thursday, Mia Schem, 24, routinely had to take pauses as she became choked up. She was shot in the arm and her wound was allowed to deteriorate. "They didn't give me any medicine...My body was broken, it's a miracle that I have a hand, I don't know how I survived 55 days without treatment." She was tormented by her guard's wife, who she describes as cruel, depriving Schem of water for days at a time. Hadar Sharvit told the Daily Mail how she and her friend got stuck in a traffic jam and were forced to escape on foot. As terrorists closed in on them, they hid under a bush. "'I'm lying down, with my face on the ground. The terrorists are ten meters from me, and they're shooting....All the police officers that were around me got killed....Everywhere, people were screaming, begging for their lives, getting murdered, and being abused by terrorists. The smell was unbelievable. Burnt bodies, blood, fire." When their hiding place began to erupt in flames, they ran for their lives and reached an army checkpoint. Her PTSD was so severe that every knock on the door reminded her of a bomb or a grenade. She wasn't able to sleep with the light off, nor was she able to drive. She has also struggled with her memory, feels anger, and copes everyday with the strain of survivor's guilt, knowing that so many others died. Nevertheless, she says, "For me, to stay alive after this, it's a gift." Omer Wenkert, 25, was kidnapped as a hostage at the Nova festival, where his close friend, Kim Damti, was killed by grenades as the pair hid together in a bomb shelter. Alone, starved and abused in an underground tunnel, Wenkert was released after 505 days of torment on February 22, 2025. He told the Daily Mail he was beaten with an iron rod, had pesticides sprayed all over his body and his eyes, and lost 36 kg. due to food deprivation.