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Survivors and rescuers from the October 7 Hamas massacre gathered in two panels this week as part of the Voices of Valor event to share their stories of courage, heartbreak and resilience. Representing different walks of life — military veterans, civilians, police officers and festival organizers — they painted a vivid and painful portrait of a nation still grappling with trauma while forging new paths toward healing and remembrance.
Each of the panelists lived through a day of unimaginable horror when Hamas terrorists stormed Israeli communities and a music festival near the Gaza border, killing more than 1,200 people and abducting over 250 others. Their testimonies, raw and unsparing, offer a window into the defining moment that continues to shape Israel’s national psyche.
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Voices of Valor: The personal stories of October 7 heroes
(Video: Mickey Schmidt)
The first discussion brought together Major General (res.) Noam Tibon, attorney Oz Davidian and police officer Sgt. Maj. Ramo Alhuzeil, each of whom faced impossible odds on October 7 and chose to act.
Tibon, a decorated former general, was swimming off a Tel Aviv beach when he received a panicked WhatsApp message from his son Amir. Terrorists had infiltrated their kibbutz, Nahal Oz, just across the border from Gaza.
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Voices of Valor: The personal stories of October 7 heroes
(Video: Mickey Schmidt)
"From that moment, I was on a journey—a mission—to rescue my family: Amir, his wife Miri, and my two granddaughters, Gali and Carmel. I took my pistol, and my wife drove our Jeep," he said. The Tibons raced south, bypassing police checkpoints and saving stranded survivors from the Nova music festival along the way.
Upon reaching Nahal Oz around noon, Tibon joined a beleaguered Maglan special forces unit under heavy fire. With three soldiers already killed, he seized the rifle of a fallen soldier and entered the fray, killing at least one terrorist and rescuing a wounded soldier, whom his wife transported to a hospital. Alongside other troops, Tibon helped clear the kibbutz of more than 30 Hamas fighters.
"The greatest moment of my life came around 4 p.m. when I reached my son’s house. I knocked on the safe room window and said, 'Amir, it's Dad.' Then I heard my granddaughter Gali say, 'Sababa, Grandpa is here,'" he said.
"Even under immense pressure to save my family, I helped everyone I encountered that day—festival survivors, wounded soldiers and more than 400 people from the kibbutz."
Davidian, a civilian attorney with no military background, also found himself on an unexpected rescue mission. After receiving an alert from his sister about the Nova festival attack, he drove straight into danger. Along the way, he collected wounded and terrified young people, letting them use his phone to call home, ferrying them to safety and returning again and again to rescue others.
"At one point, I mistook terrorists for Israeli soldiers and only realized my error when it was almost too late. I sped away between burning cars—and somehow, the bullets missed me," he said. "Toward evening, when I could no longer find living people, I began collecting bodies."
Sgt. Maj. Alhuzeil, a police investigator, was stationed at the Nova party for security. When rockets began raining down, Alhuzeil helped direct civilians to escape routes through the fields and fought to repel infiltrating terrorists. Risking his life repeatedly, he drove back and forth through the danger to evacuate wounded survivors. Despite pleas from his family to return home, Alhuzeil stayed on his self-assigned mission for more than 15 hours. "Each time I went in, I didn’t know if I would come out alive—but I swore an oath to protect and serve," he said.
"I did my duty as a father and grandfather," General Tibon added. "From the first moment, I knew if I didn't act, no one else would. I was on a military mission, using all my experience, training and instincts to survive and complete my mission.
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"When the chain of command collapsed—when the IDF and government weren’t functioning—there were stars like these two gentlemen who risked their lives to save others."
In a second panel, survivors Nimrod Palmach, Rami Shmueli and Rita Yedid shared how the horrors they witnessed at the Nova music festival propelled them into new missions of remembrance, advocacy and healing.
Shmueli, a festival producer, returned to the devastated grounds after the massacre to search for missing persons. Disillusioned by the lack of an official response, he and others took it upon themselves to recover personal items and identify victims. "When I got home, I realized nobody was looking for our friends. Everything was chaos," he said. "From that day on, everything changed."
Palmach, a former CEO of the organization Israel-is, defied military orders that morning to rush southward. En route, he learned his ex-wife’s partner and daughters were trapped in Kibbutz Nir Oz. Recognizing the extent of the infiltration, Palmach expected to die. He left farewell videos for his children and threw himself into rescue efforts.
"At that point, my only motivation was to help others. I thought, if I were at the Nova party or in the kibbutz, I’d be praying for someone—anyone—to come save me. I decided to be that someone," he said. However, the guilt over those he could not save, he said, will remain with him forever.
Since the attack, Palmach has dedicated himself to telling survivors' stories internationally. He helped launch a VR initiative, Survive to Tell, bringing the reality of October 7 to American college campuses.
Yedid, who survived the festival while sheltering for hours with her husband and sister, transformed her personal trauma into a mission of hope. She credits early psychological intervention with saving her life and has since become a motivational speaker. Speaking at the United Nations, Yedid advocated for immediate trauma care in mass casualty events.
"If I stayed alive, I have a responsibility to help others stay strong too," Yedid said. "Trauma doesn’t have to destroy us."
All three panelists underscored the long emotional journey survivors face. “There’s a front in Gaza, a front in Lebanon, and a front in our own hearts,” Palmach said. “We need to take care of ourselves, too.”