Israeli Families Express Optimism For Peace On 2nd Anniversary Of Oct. 7 Attack

Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times,

Two years ago today, the lives of many Israelis were upended at 6:30 a.m. local time when a wave of terrorists invaded from the Gaza Strip, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

Now, on the anniversary of the atrocities, all eyes are on Hamas—the terrorist group that launched the surprise attack that triggered the Israel–Hamas war—to see if leaders will comply with a 20-point peace plan presented by U.S. President Donald Trump on Sept. 29.

Hamas said on Oct. 3 that it would release the remaining hostages and the bodies of those who died while held captive. Questions remain about whether or when the exchange will take place, but some Israelis say they are confident in Trump’s plan.

“There’s optimism in the air, and we definitely put our trust in President Trump,” said Avichai Brodutch, whose wife and three children—aged 4, 8, and 10 at the time—were taken hostage along with a young neighbor during the siege and subsequently released after 51 days.

On the day of the attack, he was injured by a rocket-propelled grenade when about 250 terrorists overwhelmed and killed half of the 14 men defending the kibbutz where his family lived, he told The Epoch Times.

Some of the invaders wore Israeli military uniforms and spoke limited Hebrew to trick Israeli families into opening their homes, he said.

During his family’s imprisonment, Brodutch raised awareness about the plight of hostages by standing outside the Israeli Defense Ministry demanding their rescue.

He lauded Trump’s approach to diplomacy and what he described as the U.S. president’s perpetually bullish outlook when tackling challenging situations.

“His biggest virtue is his optimism, and I think he spreads it,” Brodutch said. “People in Israel right now are very optimistic that this deal is going to come through differently. The families of hostages have never been so optimistic.”

The most important aspects of the deal and Trump’s agenda are the elements meant to secure long-term peace in the region, he said.

“Whenever he speaks, he talks about the hostages, which means a lot to us, but if we go one step further, he speaks a lot about peace as well,” Brodutch said.

Terror’s Long-Term Toll 

Aimee Labann gave birth to her son Kai 10 days before Hamas attacked.

She put him in his bed early in the morning on Oct. 7 to get a drink of water when the nation’s alert system—which consists of sirens and a woman’s voice repeating the words “red alert”—warned Israelis of potential danger.

“It goes into your bones, and you hear it, and you start acting immediately,” Labban told The Epoch Times.

Alerts are not uncommon in the region, and they usually last about 10 minutes, she said.

“But it was different that day because it just did not stop,” Labban said. “It was a never-ending red alert.”

She quickly gathered her family, including her infant child, husband Uriel Labban, and her mother, Deborah Mintz, and huddled in their safe room.

Terrorists attempted to breach it, but she and her husband were able to hold them back and keep the door closed.

Before fleeing the home, the invaders set fire to the building, trapping Mintz’s dog in the inferno.

“Her dog burnt alive, and we heard every single little bit of air he used up until we couldn’t hear him anymore, and that just tore my mother apart,” Labban said. “You can’t imagine the sound of a dog screaming.”

She was on the phone with the fire department as they worked to find and rescue her family. In the meantime, she moved a metal safety panel from her window to get fresh air in the room for her baby, occasionally placing Kai on the windowsill and quickly pulling him back when she saw terrorists approaching.

Years later, anxiety and stress remain. The thought of how to respond to another attack is always at the back of her mind.

“I don’t go out late at night because I don’t feel safe,” Labban said. “All I think about when I walk outside is what if something happens.”

The toll is emotionally and physically draining, she said.

“That’s what keeps your brain constantly moving and thinking and busy,” Labban said. “You’re just tired all the time. Your body is in a fight or flight situation.”

Testing Battle Readiness

Amit Govrin was on vacation with his wife at the Sea of Galilee when they noticed news reports of the invasion.

A member of the Israeli Defense Forces, later promoted to combat company commander and subsequently to the head of foreign affairs at Israel’s National Defense College, Govrin immediately decided to head toward the action.

Within minutes of entering the impacted area, he noticed dead bodies, destruction, and hundreds of vehicles stuck on the road.

“It seemed like it was a surrealistic kind of image that you cannot understand,” Govrin told The Epoch Times.

He said the ensuing battle, a guerrilla warfare-style engagement in close quarters with civilians, was harrowing and traumatic. Hamas fighters are generally indistinguishable from others unless they’re pointing a weapon, he said, making the situation more difficult to navigate.

While he was fighting the terrorists, shrapnel struck his right eye, causing a loss of vision and permanent damage.

Diplomacy in Action

Now a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Govrin is looking for diplomatic solutions to long-term problems. A regional security agreement is one prospect that deserves more attention, he said.

“The end goal needs to be an agreement that all of the pragmatic Arab countries are part of,” Govrin said. “We need to have structure. We need to have a border strategy.”

He called on other nations to pressure Hamas to release the hostages.

“Then we need to have a collective effort to disarm Hamas, and then we need to finish this war by signing a regional security agreement with all the problematic forces in the region,“ Govrin said. ”This is how these atrocities of Oct. 7 need to end.”

Following recent developments, Trump thanked some countries in the region—including Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar—on Oct. 3 for their role in supporting the peace negotiations.

“We’ll see how it all turns out. We have to get the final word down in concrete,” Trump said in a video posted on Truth Social. “Very importantly, I look forward to having the hostages come home to their parents.”

He described the negotiations as “unprecedented” and vowed to continue pressing for success.

“Everybody was unified in wanting this war to end and seeing peace in the Middle East, and we’re very close to achieving that,” Trump said.