‘Like the apocalypse’: A year after Oct. 7, Israeli survivor faces trauma

Galia Sopher was camping with her two daughters outside her kibbutz near the Israel-Gaza border when Hamas began its deadly attack in the early morning hours of Oct. 7, 2023.

WARNING: This story contained graphic descriptions of violence that may be disturbing to some readers. Discretion is advised.

A year after Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, one survivor says finding an answer to how she is coping with the trauma of that day is difficult.

“The short version is I’m fine,” Galia Sopher told Mercedes Stephenson in an interview that aired Sunday on The West Block. “I’m alive, I’m healthy, I have a beautiful, lovely family.

“So it’s easy to say we are good. But on the other hand, we are not. I’m not.”

About 1,200 people were killed in the attack, which sparked Israel’s military offensive in Gaza that has killed over 41,000 people in the Palestinian territory, according to Hamas-run health officials’ figures that don’t differentiate between civilians and militants.

The violence has since escalated into a wider conflict in the Middle East between other Iran-backed groups including Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Roughly 100 of the 250 hostages taken by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attack are still believed to be held inside Gaza, and ceasefire talks to secure their release have been stalled for several weeks.

Sopher was camping with her two young daughters and other families outside her kibbutz, Mefalsim, which sits just three kilometres from the Israel-Gaza border, when Hamas began its attack in the early morning hours. Her husband was at home.