As Israel marks three years since the terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, stories of courage and self-sacrifice continue to emerge from a country still navigating recovery and rehabilitation.
For Nil Kirsht-Levi, the years since the Hamas-led massacre have been marked by profound personal loss, an agonizing wait for her sister—who was abducted and taken to Gaza—and an unwavering dedication to helping other survivors of the cross-border terror attack.
Kirsht-Levi, a nurse with Clalit, Israel’s largest healthcare provider, lives in Kibbutz Magen. On the morning of Oct. 7, she treated patients remotely from her safe room while trying to shield her three children as terrorists moved through the community from house to house. At the same time, she frantically exchanged messages with her sister, Rimon Buchshtab-Kirsht, who lived with her husband at nearby Kibbutz Nirim.
IDF forces outside Nil Kirscht’s home on the morning of Oct 8, 2023. Credit: Courtesy of the family. (Kirscht family)
“I lost more than 30 patients that day, more than 200 people I knew, and around 100 people I knew were kidnapped,” Kirsht-Levi told News Outlet. “I’m lucky to have a job that saves me, healthy children, a healthy husband. We work every day to recover and rehabilitate ourselves. Every day, we fall and get back up, but we are here — for ourselves, for others and we have won,” she continued.
“We should never forget, but we must move forward, live every moment and keep going. It’s a privilege to be alive,” she added.
Nil reunites with her sister Rimon upon her return from captivity, December 4, 2023. (Nil Kirsht-Levi)
On Oct. 7, Kirsht-Levi’s sister sent a message saying she could hear Arabic and that terrorists had entered her home. For weeks, the family endured agonizing uncertainty. Kirsht-Levi eventually saw her sister alive in a Hamas video, campaigned for her release and, 53 days later, welcomed her home as part of a ceasefire agreement in November 2023. Rimon returned emaciated and covered in scars.
Her husband, Kirsht-Levi’s brother-in-law Yagev Buchshtab, had been murdered by the terrorists.
During the Palestinian terror assault launched on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah in 2023, Michaela Koretsky, a midwife with Clalit’s Southern District, improvised emergency treatment for wounded members of Kibbutz Alumim.
Like countless others, Koretsky was awakened at 6:29 a.m. by air raid sirens as Hamas fired thousands of rockets at Israel, creating cover for terrorists crossing the border during the invasion. She ran with her husband and children to the shelter, where she received a message from Eran, a member of the kibbutz’s civil defense squad, asking whether she was home. Eran then began bringing injured residents to her for first aid.
Michaela and her daughter hide in the safe room for hours on the morning of October 7, while she was tending to the wounded in her living room—and even saving one who was in critical condition. (Courtesy of the Koretsky family)
“When they entered the house carrying Amichai, he was covered in blood… I switched into nurse mode,” she said.
Koretsky had Amichai lie on the floor while gunfire continued outside the kitchen window. She improvised bandages and prepared an IV, remaining in contact with an emergency room doctor from Soroka Medical Center who was also inside the kibbutz. The doctor confirmed that Amichai was stable.
Then Eyal arrived. He had been shot, and one bullet was lodged in his lung. After Koretsky connected him to an IV and provided additional oxygen, it became clear that he needed to be evacuated.
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Palestinian Hamas terrorists stand guard on the day of the handover of hostages held in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 22, 2025. (Hatem Khaled/File Photo/Reuters)
“We needed to save lives, so I switched my brain into action mode and did what needed to be done. The whole time I did not think that the terrorists would enter my house. I knew one of my children was afraid they would figure out where the wounded were being taken and come after us, but I told myself, ‘I am protected. It will not happen,’” she told News Outlet.
Koretsky’s husband, Tzviki, reached his car with members of the kibbutz’s civil defense squad. He then evacuated the wounded alone under fire to Netivot, where they were transferred to waiting ambulances. Amichai and Eyal were subsequently taken to Soroka Medical Center for further treatment.
Prof. Shlomi Codish, director of the hospital in Beersheba, said three lifesaving decisions he made early on Oct. 7 helped shape Soroka’s response throughout the day.
Prof. Shlomi Codish, the Director of Clalit-Soroka Medical Center on the day of the Iranian missile strike, June 2025. (Clalit-Soroka Medical Center)
First, he and his team decided not to send the night shift home, allowing the hospital to begin the day with twice its normal staffing level. At 7:45 a.m., they declared a mass-casualty incident, despite not yet knowing how many wounded would arrive and alerted all available staff to report to the hospital. Finally, they ordered additional blood supplies in anticipation of the surge of casualties.
“We usually start the shift with 50 units of blood in our blood bank. By the end of the day, we had given 250 units. If we hadn’t ordered additional blood early that morning, we might have run out and people may have died,” Codish told News Outlet.
Codish said the hospital faced several overwhelming challenges throughout the day, beginning with the sheer number of wounded being brought to the hospital.
“In the first 24 hours, we received 674 wounded people. At the peak, we received more than 80 in a single hour, with an average of just 40 seconds between wounded people arriving,” he said.
“This was one of the largest mass-casualty events resulting from terror in human history. The hospital itself was also under fire, with dozens of incoming missile warnings from the Gaza Strip, while attacks were taking place simultaneously at a very large number of sites,” he added.
A woman reacts as the community of Kibbutz Kfar Aza commemorates their members who were killed, taken hostage and who died in captivity, following the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas terrorists, in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, southern Israel, Oct. 16, 2025. (Hannah McKay/Reuters)
The second challenge was the immediate impact of the invasion on hospital staff themselves. “Everyone who came in left a family at home that was potentially under attack. They got into their cars and drove through air-raid sirens in areas that weren’t protected, at significant personal risk, to come in and save lives,” he said.
Another major challenge was maintaining care inside the hospital as the number of casualties surged. The hospital began the day at full capacity, forcing staff to quickly free up intensive care beds and operating rooms for incoming patients. With roads around the hospital unsafe, transferring patients to other facilities was not an option in the first hours of the attack, while sending ambulances into the field risked exposing them to Hamas ambushes.
“When you see babies or children with direct injuries, that is not something you typically see on a battlefield. We saw elderly people with severe wounds inflicted directly, with no protection,” Codish said, reflecting on the brutality he witnessed that day.
“As a medical professional, what we saw was beyond words. Two babies suffering from dehydration after their parents were killed, simply waiting to be rescued — I defy anyone to find a word other than ‘evil’ to describe it,” he added.
