People ‘putting ends together’ after horrors of October 7, says British-Israeli

Simon King spoke to the PA news agency about October 7, 2023 – the day Hamas attacked Israel.

British-Israeli Simon King recalls the moments he and his family were in a safe room for 36 hours (Simon King/PA)

Israeli people continue “putting ends together”, a Briton living in Israel has said, as they try to rebuild their lives following a year of loss and horror after Hamas attacked Israel.

October 7 marks one year since Hamas militants stormed Israeli kibbutzim, including British-Israeli Simon King’s neighbourhood of Be’eri, southern Israel, forcing him to retreat to a safe room for 36 hours with his wife, Zehavit King, 52, and his two sons, 14 and 15.

He recalls the “frightening” memories of being trapped and “lying on the floor” with his family in a pitch black room as they heard gunshots and explosions, before being evacuated to a hotel on the Dead Sea where they lived for nine months.

They now live in a caravilla – a prefabricated mobile home – in Kibbutz Hatzerim, about a 40-minute drive from Be’eri, and he said he tries to “use every day as much as possible”.

Speaking from his caravilla, Mr King, 60, told the PA news agency that people are trying to make sense of what happened on October 7.

“I think the acceptance of what’s happened, people are kind of getting their head around it slowly,” he said.

“When you sit around the table and you talk to people and have conversations about this and that, it always goes down to the seventh and what happened on the seventh and where you were at this time or at that time.

“And people are still putting ends together”

One year after the Israel-Hamas war started, he said he felt taken aback that he and his family were able to escape the terrors of October 7 unharmed.

“It totally amazes me how we all got out alive,” said Mr King, who is originally from Worcestershire, but has been living in southern Israel since he relocated to kibbutz Be’eri in 1984.

Recalling being inside the safe room for 36 hours, he said: “It was pitch dark most of the time, because there was no electricity, so all we could hear were explosions, gunshots, automatic rifle fire, shouting.

“We could hear running. We could hear the siren going off.

“It was very frightening to be in that dark place. We were in there for 36 hours. We didn’t come out. When we did come out, it was really scary. We didn’t know what to expect.

“We were lying on the floor together, whispering, reading text messages.”

He described the safe room as “hot and stuffy”, and how they opened the window “quietly and waft it backwards and forwards” to circulate air into the stifling room.

“The electricity went off, and also they (Hamas) turned the water off,” he said.

“We didn’t have anything in the safe room because we never needed it. The safe room, basically every house has one, and it’s against shrapnel. It’s not against terrorists infiltrating your house and getting in and murdering people.”

Mr King and his family were evacuated to a hotel where they shared one room for nine months before being relocated to Hatzerim, which he said has about 270 caravillas.

“I tend to my house (in Be’eri) and we renovated it two years ago and we had been living in it for two years, so it was a bit heartbreaking living in a one-room hotel in the Dead Sea,” he said.

“It was a nice hotel, but you go to a hotel maybe for a week at most, not nine months.”

For now, he considers their house in Hatzerim a home “because everyone has got their own private space”, but described the feelings in his new kibbutz as one of “change”.

“The atmosphere is of change, of getting used to being in a house. A lot of the feeling of being social is a lot better because you’re living in a house and not living in a hotel,” he said.

Mr King said that in the last two months, the kibbutz has held 52 funerals for members of the community who lost their lives in the Israel-Hamas war, which he said he now feels “numb” to.

“It’s a lot to take in. In the beginning, it was really, really difficult, but we kind of get numb to it or you get good at dealing with it, I think,” he said.

“If you let it get to you, you can feel very sad, and it will definitely get you down.”

He said the sounds of artillery and explosions remains frightening, but feels people have become less fazed by the loud noises a year since the war began.

“I was at a funeral and we could hear artillery firing off. It’s quite a loud boom, bang, but nobody flinches anymore,” he said.

“Everyone knows. They already know what it is. Let’s get on with our life – that’s what it’s like now. You get used to it, which is bad, I think.”

He now tries to make the most of each day, adding: “As soon as the sun comes up, I’m up and going. I hardly ever lie in bed and just relax. I live for the moment.

“I take each day as it goes. But I also use every day as much as possible.”