BRIGHTON, NY (WROC) – Three survivors of the October 7 attack in Israel traveled to Rochester to give firsthand accounts of what happened that day.
On Thursday they spoke at Temple B’rith Kodesh in Brighton.
Olga Metzger was one of the speakers and spoke to News 8 after the event, which was hosted by the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester.
“I want people to know that the stories about the brutality of the attack are very, very incredibly true,” Metzger said.
Metzger spoke about what happened after Hamas militants entered Kibbutz Nir Oz, near the Israel-Gaza border, and began their slaughter…
“On that day we spent seven hours in our safe room while dozens of terrorists tried to enter our safe room, open the door, break in and we were lucky that they did not succeed,” she recalls. .
More than 100 people from the 400-member community were killed or taken hostage.
Metzger’s in-laws were among those drawn to Gaza.
The violence shocked Metzger, but so did the decision to target Nir Oz, because she said many in their community had supported a two-state solution and volunteered to provide medical care to Gazans.
“Many of the people who volunteered are now dead because they were killed on October 7 or because they are now being held hostage in Gaza,” she said.
After October 7, Israel attacked Hamas in Gaza and a war has raged ever since, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians, while still holding about 100 people hostage.
Metzger is now calling on everyone to come together to reach an agreement to stop the killing and return the hostages.
“You can call it an absence of war, you don’t have to call it a peace resolution,” she said.
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