In Cyprus, Israeli survivors of the Hamas attack try to overcome their trauma

"We seem happy but… “On the inside we are not”: as part of a therapeutic stay on the island of Cyprus, Talar, 23, tries to overcome the trauma of the attack carried out by the police. e in Israel by Palestinian Hamas on October 7.

In a forest in the west of the Mediterranean island, a group of young Israelis sing loudly, laugh and shout with joy at the sight of a rainbow. But their hearts are heavy.

They are greeted by Yoni Kahana, 35, owner of the Secret Forest resort in the Paphos area, who has set up a free treatment program with the help of IsraAID, a major Israeli NGO.

< p>The goal: to help them overcome the trauma they experienced during the Tribe of Nova techno music festival in southern Israel, near the Gaza border.

Saturday 7 October, around 6:30 a.m., while the approximately 3,500 festival-goers are still dancing, Hamas men burst into border areas of the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel.

They launched an unprecedented attack since the creation of the State of Israel which left around 1,200 dead, mainly civilians, according to the authorities. In total, 270 people were killed at the Tribe of Nova. The attack sparks a deadly war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Telling his story is too difficult, “because others can't understand”, Tamar told AFP, a marketing employee who preferred not to give her last name.

– “Healing” –

The tranquility of the setting contrasts sharply with the situation in Gaza, the besieged Palestinian territory 400 kilometers away, where retaliatory bombings from Israel, which says it wants to wipe out Hamas, killed more than 11,500 people, according to the Hamas government.

Israelis who survived the October 7 Hamas attack on the Tribe of Nova festival, at a spa hotel where they are receiving therapy, in the Paphos region, November 14, 2023 in Cyprus ©  AFP – David VUJANOVIC

“The biggest advantage is the silence,” Tal Nehushtai, 29, told AFP. “Here, no one talks about war, it's pure healing at the highest level.”

At the Secret Forest, 50 festival survivors arrive every week for five days. According to the owner, 1,400 people have registered and around 200 have already followed the program.

They benefit from individual and group therapy sessions, as well as artistic activities, meditation inspired by Jewish tradition , yoga or even regenerating swims.

Monday evening, a group had organized a trance music rave party in the basement of the hotel, partying until the early hours, like October 7.

“We like to dance (…) to feel fullness, love, happiness, to celebrate life,” says Lior Auvgang, 26, an Israeli with a red beard. On the day of the attack, the party was “interrupted”, “so we need it”.

Aerial view of the Secret Forest spa hotel, in the Paphos region, where survivors of the October 7 Hamas attack are receiving therapy, November 14, 2023 in Cyprus © AFP – David VUJANOVIC

Former Israeli army medic Lior Auvgang said he spent more than two hours helping treat the wounded on the day of the attack, before fleeing into the woods where he hid for seven hours, during which he sent a farewell message to his mother, he says.

Two of his friends were killed and two others were kidnapped and taken to Gaza, he said.

– “Miracle” –

Nehushtai, a farmer and aspiring tattoo artist, is also a survivor. He describes a frantic race to avoid Hamas men, being shot at and then finally finding himself cowering in a small grove of orange trees for six hours.

He and his friends were convinced that they would soon be found and killed. When fighters from the Palestinian Islamist movement came upon their car and began wandering among the trees, he too believed that death was near.

Israelis who survived the October 7 Hamas attack on the Tribe of Nova festival bathe as part of thermal therapy in the Paphos region on November 14, 2023 in Cyprus © AFP – David VUJANOVIC

“We saw their legs, we saw their faces,” he says. “If I move my head, they hear us, so I only followed them with my eyes,” he recalls, believing that being alive is “the greatest miracle.”

After returning home, Tamar, did not leave her house or eat or sleep for a week, but then joined the Israeli air defense reserve to “take back control.” But the sounds of explosions caused him anxiety attacks.

The sessions in Cyprus are only the first phase of a complex and prolonged healing process, according to several of the therapists in the program.

The sessions in Cyprus are only the first phase of a complex and prolonged healing process, according to several of the therapists in the program.

p>

For Mr. Auvgang, progress is already visible.

“The first day was a bit difficult. I felt (…) like closed off,” he said. declared. “Now things are better (…) we are all connected.”

All rights of reproduction and representation reserved. © (2023) Agence France-Presse