Nova festival survivor takes own life two years after October 7 attacks
In an interview in November 2023, she said: “I lift the stick with the sunflower as high as I can, feeling like I’m reaching the sky. Then suddenly Mapal comes to my mind and I start crying, crying with all my heart.
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“The more I cry, the more I feel Mapal reaching out from the sky.”
Some other survivors of the massacre also took their own lives, while some families accused the Israeli government of not doing enough for their well-being in the weeks and months after the attack in 2023.
News of his death came as Israel prepared to welcome home the last 20 surviving hostages still held captive by Hamas and the bodies of 28 others.
The handover is said to be planned for Monday (Tuesday AEDT).
US President Donald Trump will arrive in the country on Monday to accept praise from politicians and hostage families who brokered the deal.
However, as of Saturday morning, there appears to be still disagreement between Israel and Hamas over the list of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for the hostages.
Major preparations are being made for the visit, during which Trump’s armored convoy will fly to Israel from the Ramstein US base in Germany.
The US is also deploying 200 Centcom military personnel to oversee the ceasefire in Gaza and the disarmament of Hamas; but not to the Strip.
The withdrawal of Israeli troops from urban areas, completed at noon on Friday, allowed Hamas to re-establish control of the population in Gaza cities.
On Saturday, there were reports that the terror group had begun a wave of arrests of alleged “collaborators” with Israel in Gaza City ahead of extrajudicial killings.
“Our forces are working to restore order,” a Hamas spokesman reportedly said on a social media channel affiliated with the group.
At the same time, for the first time since the January-February ceasefire, members of Hamas’ internal security were photographed at major intersections.
The group also claimed to have killed members of anti-Hamas militias near Jabalia, north of Gaza City.
However, amid the power vacuum, there were suggestions of retaliation after senior Al Qassam Brigade commander Mohammed Imad Akl was found murdered.
Sources claimed on Saturday that Hamas was still pressing for the release of Marwan Barghouti, who is serving a life sentence for terrorism.Credit: access point
This came as thousands of refugees returned to their homes, although many neighborhoods were largely or completely destroyed.
Sources claimed on Saturday that Hamas was still pressing for the release of Marwan Barghouti, a symbolic figure of the Palestinian armed resistance against Israel who is currently serving a life sentence for terrorism.
Another important name reportedly under pressure is Ahmed Saadat, the head of the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who has been imprisoned since 2002.
The Israeli government announced last week that Barghouti, known as the ‘Mandella’ of the Palestinians, would not be released.
Israel has also reportedly rejected the release of senior Palestinian medics captured in Gaza, whom it accuses of working for Hamas.
Few details have yet emerged about the disarmament mechanism or the international stabilization force expected to guarantee security in the Strip.
A Hamas source said Trump rejected any “foreign tutelage” of the region, even though that was what interim authority in his peace plan implied.
Telegraph, London
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