Israel on October 7th: What a Hamas hostage experienced

A year ago, Hamas terrorists carried out a massacre of the population in southern Israel. They deported around 240 people to Gaza. A former hostage reports on the horror she experienced with her daughter.

Danielle Aloni crouches in complete darkness as she loses hope. She is trapped in a burning house with her family and smoke creeps into her lungs. She hears gunshots outside. “This is the end, we thought. I hugged my daughter tightly and said: I’m sorry, darling, we’re going to die now. But what five-year-old knows anything about dying?” She just doesn’t know how else to say goodbye. Then she loses consciousness.

“This is Israel. We have the most powerful army in the Middle East. What are the chances that hostages will be taken here?”

This is what Aloni, a blonde woman in her early forties, says a year later ARD interview. She is sitting in an office building in the center of Tel Aviv. She speaks in a firm voice, but sometimes pauses. Over the next hour, she struggles to find words for the horror in English. For the day that tore her family apart and left the country in shock. For the Hamas massacre on October 7th.

Hoping for rescue that doesn’t come

It is the morning of October 7, 2023. Sirens are shrilling in southern Israel. Missile alert. Danielle Aloni, her five-year-old daughter, her sister, her husband and the three-year-old twins seek refuge in the shelter at Kibbutz Nir Oz. But something is different than previous attacks – this one is much louder.

Shortly afterwards, a chat message pings on the cell phone: Hamas terrorists have entered the town. Hundreds of them have overcome the border fence on the Gaza Strip and are now storming the kibbutzim on the Israeli side. Only a door separates Aloni’s family from the terrorists. And it’s not even lockable.

Aloni’s brother-in-law holds the handle from the inside. It stands there for hours and doesn’t budge. Not when the terrorists oppose it. Not even when they set the house on fire. The family is now completely in the dark because the electricity is cut off. Outside they hear the sounds of battle and shouts.

“I remember being very scared. I started shaking,” says Aloni. “I held my daughter close to me. We started inhaling the smoke.” The family repeatedly calls 911. She hopes that the army will finally arrive and save her. But nobody comes.

Better to die in a hail of bullets than in fire

At some point Aloni loses consciousness. A voice message from the sister captures the moment. In the background the daughter is screaming and crying: “Mom, please don’t die,” she can be heard. “Somehow I managed to wake up. That was the moment I chose a different death for all of us.”

Aloni wants to go out with the family. Get out of the smoke, even if you know the terrorists are waiting outside. Better a quick death in a hail of bullets than a painful one in the flames, they think. They open the window and are dragged out by fighters with Kalashnikovs. The men throw them onto jeeps and drive off. Only later does Aloni understand that they will be deported to Gaza.

That day, the terrorists murdered more than 1,200 people in southern Israel. They rape women, loot and burn down houses. And they kidnap about 240 people to Gaza.

The family will torn apart

The jeep with the hostages arrives in a city. Maybe it’s Chan Yunis, Aloni doesn’t know for sure. Crowds of people are waiting there. She is hit on the head and back. An Israeli soldier who was also kidnapped dies at their feet. The children have to wade through his blood. People cheer and holler and take photos of the prisoners.

The family is torn apart. Danielle Aloni and her daughter are taken into a tunnel. They wander underground for hours. It was dark and damp. The musty smell made it difficult for her to breathe. Then they reach a room with bars. Other people, some injured and tied up, are already crouching there. Hostages from Kibbutz Nir Oz are also among them. “It was only then that I understood that we weren’t the only ones,” says Aloni.

They spend the next few weeks in the tunnels. They are only above ground in an apartment for a few days: in a windowless room with cockroaches. But with bombings in Gaza, things go back into darkness. Israel’s army has now launched air strikes against Hamas.

“I have ours prime minister yelled at”

Danielle Aloni wants to be strong for her daughter and take away her fears. She gives her food when she herself is starving. Calls the Hamas fighters “nice people.” Try to smile from time to time. “As a mother, you unlock powers you don’t think you could have,” she says. “You say to yourself: I will do everything in my power to bring my daughter through this trauma as harmlessly as possible.” A child should never lose hope, she says. She doesn’t say what she goes through in captivity.

But then, after two weeks, Aloni also collapses. “I couldn’t breathe. I started screaming and crying,” she says. The other hostages took her daughter away from her. At that moment she no longer believed she would survive.

At the beginning of November, Hamas released a propaganda video. Three women crouch on chairs, Aloni in the middle. She is wearing a blue dress and looks pale. A Hamas commander gave her notes, she says, but didn’t force her to record them. “You could see my mental state in the video. It was authentic,” she says. “I screamed at our prime minister to get us out of there.”

Freedom after 49 days of captivity

And at the end of November it actually happened: Danielle and her daughter were released after 49 days. Israel has agreed to a multi-day ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the return of 105 hostages. Danielle’s sister and the twins are also among them. The brother-in-law stays behind. He remains in captivity to this day.

Danielle Aloni describes it as great happiness to be free again. But her family’s heart is still in Gaza, she says. The pain cannot go away until the family is complete.

Israel’s army was only able to free very few abductees during the fighting in Gaza. After a year, 101 hostages are still trapped in the coastal strip. How many are still alive is unclear. Most recently, six were recovered dead at the beginning of September.

The relatives are campaigning for a new agreement to bring those who remain home. They are loud and putting pressure on Netanyahu’s government, protesting in the streets week after week. Posters with pictures of the abductees are stuck to many house facades, on the beach, in cafes and at the airport. Many people wear yellow ribbons as a symbol of solidarity.

“How many more are going to die?”

Hundreds of signs and T-shirts, as well as boxes of stickers and baseball caps, lie in the basement of the Tel Aviv office that serves as headquarters for the hostages’ families. Banners for the next demonstration read “Bring them home now!” or “Home is victory”.

But mediators from the USA, Egypt and Qatar have been trying in vain for months to reach a hostage deal with Hamas. Recently, the talks seemed to have come to a complete standstill. Many now doubt whether those responsible even want a deal. And now, with Israel’s fighting against the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon and the shelling by Iran, attention is also dwindling.

The families and friends of those abducted know that they are running out of time. “I’m afraid that with every day that goes by, another hostage will die,” says Danielle Aloni. It’s the only time in the conversation that her voice breaks. She dabs a few tears from the corner of her eyes. “How many more are going to die?”