Yonatan Shamriz
Kfar Aza.
“In the early morning hours of Saturday, October 7, 2023, I woke up to sirens wailing throughout my village. I’ve been living in Kfar Aza for most of my life and unfortunately, sirens were a big part of it. They come and go but this time it felt different. My middle brother who is part of the Kfar emergency security squad texted me that terrorists invaded our community and that we should lock ourselves in our safe room. We started to receive horror messages on our Kfar WhatsApp group saying that terrorists were inside people’s homes, shooting, throwing grenades, and setting fires to houses in order to force people to get out of their safe rooms.
At 10 O’clock in the morning, my younger brother Alon texted me that terrorists were inside his house. I texted him that I loved him and that he had to be strong no matter what. Two minutes later, at 10:02 he sent me an 
emoji and that was the last time I heard from him.
emoji and that was the last time I heard from him.That morning my daughter, Yali, was celebrating her two-year birthday so before entering our safe room I brought her birthday cake inside. We had to be silent so I whispered softly into her ear that were going to play a game:
‘If you whisper – you’ll get a lot of balloons after will get out of the safe room’. It felt like we were in the movie ‘Life is Beautiful’ by Roberto Benigni where the father employs his imagination and plays games with his son to shield him from the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp. It was that bad.
We hid in the safe room for more than 22 long hours.
It was a roller coaster of emotions since we didn’t know when and if we would be rescued.
On top of things my wife is pregnant and she is in her third trimester. It’s a high-risk pregnancy and I thought that because of the situation, she might go into early labor.
When the army came to rescue us I didn’t know if I should open the safe room because I knew the terrorists disguised themselves as soldiers. They shouted the name of my wife and I started to have a conversation with them in order to get a better understanding of their accent. When I realized their Israelis I opened the safe room.
Because the fighting with the terrorists was still going on we were only evacuated three hours later.
My brother Alon was kidnapped and taken to Gaza.
Alon is such a free spirit that always does things in his own way. He was supposed to start his freshman year in university and had such big dreams for the future. Alon is a level-headed, calm, and sensible person so I hope it helps him to survive. I love him so much. We have to bring him and all the other hostages back home, NOW.
When he comes back home I will just give him a big hug.
Later on, will deal with the consequences. I just want to get him back.
#bringthemhomeNOW
*In a tragic incident Alon Shamriz, and two other hostages Yotam Haim and Samar Fouad Talalka were killed on December 15th by Israeli troops during operational activity in Gaza after they were mistakenly identified as terrorists.
May their memory be a blessing.
May their memory be a blessing.