On the occasion of October 7, Zachy Hennessey published an article on israel21c. I have modified it and the below you can find the new version.
A year after the pogrom of October 7, new testimonies once again demonstrate the murderous madness perpetrated by Hamas against innocent people. A year ago, Israel suffered a traumatic nationwide terrorist attack, during which 1,195 people died, 251 were kidnapped, and the lives of millions were radically changed. While Hamas terrorists rampaged through southern Israel, many kibbutzim in the region were stormed with lethal force. In one of these kibbutzim, Kfar Aza, more than 60 civilians were brutally massacred, and 18 were kidnapped and taken to Gaza. That morning, Ellay Golan was hiding in the bomb shelter of her home with her husband Ariel, their 18-month-old daughter Yael, and the family dog. They tried to keep their daughter occupied as around 70 terrorists invaded Kfar Aza and surrounded their home.
"We locked the shelter door and waited there with a kitchen knife," she recalls."The experience was so surreal: we were so anxious, but we also had a one-and-a-half-year-old child we had to entertain; we had to make her feel relaxed and not disturbed like we were. We played with her, read books, and tried to make things 'normal'."
She and her husband had pushed a shelf against the door of the room, which also served as their daughter's bedroom. Through the window, they could hear men shouting in Arabic, punctuated by automatic gunfire nearby. Ellay Golan, a medical student who managed to escape from home with her family, is one of the survivors of that attack. Though the event left her emotionally and physically scarred, a year later, she has made incredible efforts to overcome the many challenges of the past year and continue pursuing her career. In their shelter, the Golan family heard the sounds of chaos filling the air outside. In the kibbutz's group chat, a neighbor asked for someone to help her husband, who had been shot in the leg and was bleeding in a nearby yard. Ellay, who was in the midst of a three-month internship at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, wanted to help. But after reading more panicked messages, she realised there were about 30 assailants in the area around their neighbor, making it impossible to run to his aid.
"It's a guilt I still carry with me. Because he died," says Ellay, her voice trembling. "I know I couldn’t help him. I just couldn’t get there. But I could have tried, though if I had, my daughter wouldn’t have had a mother."
As the assault on Kfar Aza continued, the sounds of gunfire and shouting grew louder as the terrorists broke into the Golan family's home and forced the shelter door. Ellay and Ariel began throwing knives, toys, books—anything they could find to keep the men at bay."They yelled at us: 'Come out! Come! Give us the money! Come out!' And we told them, 'Take the jewelry, take the money, whatever you find, leave us, just go'.
"After a while, the men temporarily retreated. But soon after, smoke began to pour into the room as the terrorists set the house on fire."They tried to smoke us out," she says. "We knew that if we went out the window, they would take us. We didn’t even think about kidnapping; we just thought they’d kill us.
"Ellay and Ariel wrapped clothes around their daughter's face, as well as their own. Trapped in a room filling with choking smoke, they decided to try running through their burning house to escape. Barefoot and dressed only in t-shirts and underwear, Ellay wrapped her arms around Yael, holding her tightly to her chest, and the parents ran through the flaming hallway. Their dog, fearing the flames, stayed behind and died from smoke inhalation."We ran through the fire. They saw us through the window and started throwing stones and anything they could find.
"The terrorists surrounding the house took the family’s cooking gas canister and threw it into the house as the family ran through the flames. It exploded."It was like there was a flamethrower around us,"
she recalls.By this point, second and third-degree burns covered 60% of Ellay’s body, 45% of her husband’s, and 30% of their child’s. The pain was unbearable."That was the first time we thought about giving up. There was fire all around us, we were in excruciating pain... we didn’t know what to do. But I saw my daughter was still alive. So I told my husband, we will keep fighting, no matter what. We will save her."The family ran through the house and into the bathroom, where Ellay began spraying cold water on Yael, herself, and Ariel, who was blocking the door."They heard the water running in the bathroom, so they broke the window and took whatever they found and tried to stab us," recounts Ellay.
"They found a knife outside, grabbed a broomstick and broke it, and tried to stab us."Eventually, seeing the house was starting to collapse, the men outside gave up, leaving them to their fate. They fled through the bathroom window and ran into the kibbutz's agricultural fields."Our open wounds got infected because we were hiding in the dirt and bushes," she recalls.
Hiding in the cab of a tractor, Ellay took care of Yael to keep her calm and hydrated.About an hour later, she noticed her daughter was losing consciousness after inhaling so much smoke. Though she didn’t realize it at the time, Ellay herself was suffering from chemical pneumonia, a lung irritation caused by inhaling toxins.In one last life-saving decision, Ellay brought her family back across the fields to the kibbutz's entrance, where they were met by IDF soldiers. She gave the soldiers instructions on how to care for Yael and collapsed unconscious.The family was airlifted to Sheba Medical Center.Yael was placed in a medically induced coma for eight days. Ellay, the most severely injured of the three, was in a medically induced coma for 58 days. During that time, Ariel and Yael were discharged from the hospital, while Ellay was on life support for 10 days due to a lung collapse.Speaking of the doctors at Sheba, she says,
"The staff fought for my life."After waking from the coma, Ellay could no longer walk."I had lost 12 kilograms of muscle and fat. I couldn’t move my legs. I couldn’t move my hands. I had a tracheotomy, so I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t drink. I was just a body lying in a bed."After months in the rehabilitation center at Sheba, she gradually regained her functions."Little by little, they taught me to walk again and to move my hands," she says.
"Now I can bathe my daughter. Three months ago, I couldn’t even imagine that."Today, the entire family is back on their feet, but their healing is still a work in progress. Ellay and Yael wear pressure suits, which apply constant pressure to their healing burns to prevent severe scarring."We try to make things as normal as possible," she says.
"Our daughter is the most powerful girl ever. She’s amazing. She’s funny and joyful. She’s the light of our lives."Discharged from rehabilitation in August, Ellay will soon begin her specialization at Soroka. Although she initially intended to become an obstetrician-gynecologist, she now plans to specialize in intensive care and anesthesia.When asked what gave her the strength to make each of the crucial, life-saving decisions that allowed them to survive the horrific events of October 7, her response is simple and immediate."We knew we had to fight for our daughter’s life. We thought we would die anyway. But the motivation was to keep her alive, no matter what," she says."And now we always say she saved our lives."
Original Text revised and Edited by Luciano Bassani - Published on La Verità 20/10/2024
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