A year ago, Ilan Cohen was literally fighting for his life and those of fellow members of Kibbutz Re’im. Like so many Israelis, Cohen awoke to an attack on his home, his community, his country and effectively his very existence.
I first met Cohen last November when he visited Toronto and shared his story of battling Hamas fighters until the IDF could arrive. Last January, when I travelled to Israel, Cohen met our group at Kibbutz Re’im and showed us the devastation.
“After your memories of what you have seen fade, the smell will stay with you,” Cohen said as we stood in a burned out home.
Four young people died in that home, two of them were community members, two of them were visitors who had fled to Re’im after the attack started at the nearby Nova Music Festival. Standing where they had been killed, their bodies burned by Hamas was a chilling experience, but Cohen was right, the smell stays with me.
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It’s the bitterness that has stayed with Cohen. A bitterness that comes from his knowledge that people from Gaza who had been welcomed into his community as guest workers, who had been given good pay, access to health care and a better life, had betrayed the people of Re’im by giving up detailed information on the community.
Hamas fighters arrived in Re’im on the morning of Oct. 7, 2023 armed not just with rifles, knives and even rocket launchers but also detailed maps. The level of detail was so intricate that Hamas knew the home of each squad leader for the kibbutz response team and that those homes should be visited first to try and kill the leadership.
“They were like our house members, and they took advantage of that and gave information to Hamas,” Cohen said last November.
Being betrayed in that fashion, watching people you live amongst be killed, others taken hostage would take a toll on any of us. For the last year, all of Israel has felt the pain of those lost due to the bullets that flew on Oct. 7 and the loss of those taken hostage.
So while I’m thinking of Ilan on this anniversary, I’m also thinking of Yasmin Magal, whose cousin, Omer, was taken hostage from the Nova Music a year ago. I’m thinking of Sasha Ariev, whose sister, Karina, was taken hostage while serving with the IDF.
The two women visited Toronto and other cities during the summer to tell their stories and keep the message that the hostages must come home front and centre.
The hostages seem to be a forgotten part of this story for many in North America, the rallies supposedly calling for peace and a ceasefire — while also shouting out support for an intifada revolution — never includes calls for Hamas to release the hostages. Yet, the fastest way for the fighting to end would be for Hamas to do that, release the remaining hostages.
In total, 251 people were taken hostage by Hamas a year ago, with 105 freed last November in a ceasefire deal. Israel has rescued at least eight, there are 97 remaining hostages from those taken on Oct. 7, plus four more taken earlier for a total of 101.
Many are either confirmed or suspected dead at this point.
Canadian peace activist Vivian Silver was originally thought to be one of the hostages taken, but in the end, her remains were found in Kibbutz Be’eri. It took five weeks for Silver’s mutilated remains to be identified.
Eight Canadians were killed in the Oct. 7 attacks, there is rarely a mention of this from our political leaders.
While you hear the screams and chants in our streets about the horrors Israel is supposedly committing, remember why this all started in the first place. Hamas terrorists stole peoples’ lives — and until the hostages come home, Israel will rightly fight to defend itself and protect their people.
Bring them home now.