The death toll from the Hamas terrorist attack on the Gaza borders on October 7, 2023 stands at 1,205. Not to mention the hostages, the injured, the raped women, the traumatized. It’s a number, but it says nothing of the horrors experienced by each person.
“In homage to those who love and have loved life,” as it is written at the beginning of this comic strip, Israeli author Uri Fink brought together colleagues from his country who went to collect the testimonies of those who experienced this black Shabbat. Chilling stories unfold before our eyes, each with its own graphic style, but all united by a tragedy which is for Israel what September 11, 2001 was for the United States.
There is Yossef, a Bedouin taxi driver, who saved 30 people, Anec, who kept throwing back the grenades that Hamas threw into a shelter, until one exploded in his hand, or Dror and Marcel, a retired couple executed while their family followed their anguish over the arrival of terrorists by email.
A dozen stories that show us who these people murdered by Hamas were, festival-goers, kibbutz residents. These stories also bear witness to Israel’s terrible security failures in the region, with the army taking four hours to respond. It is always important to have inside stories of such events, especially since this is the one that provoked the terrifying response from the Netanyahu government.
The Hamas massacre was followed by the staggering toll, updated every day, of victims in the Gaza Strip. Here too, we will need to hear the testimonies of those who have experienced and are still experiencing this apocalypse.
In Israel, in the Palestinian territories, love existed and still exists, as shown in another comic strip, “Love, Sex and the Promised Land”. But the already complicated relations between peoples have become almost irreconcilable today. Peace seems out of reach, at least for a long time. But to get there one day, what we must never forget are the victims. The protagonists of “At the heart of October 7”, heroes, miraculous or executed, are presented in photos at the end of the album. Because, we must put faces to horror.
