Avidor Schwartzman, 38, was in his home in Kfar Aza on October 7 when Hamas militants made their way into the kibbutz in southern Israel.

Schwartzman was locked in his safe room together with his wife, Keren, and their baby until the army rescued them 16 hours later.

"We barely had anything to drink during that time," he said. "We used all the water we had for food for our baby."

Shortly after their evacuation, they found out Keren's parents, Cindy and Igal Flash, were among the 1,200 Israelis who were killed in the attacks. Hamas, which Israel, the United States, the European Union and other governments have designated as a terror organization, also took 240 hostages to the Gaza Strip.

"They were both big believers in peace and human rights for all," Schwartzman told DW.

Since their evacuation from Kfar Aza, Schwartzman and his family have been living in Shefayim, a kibbutz 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) north of Tel Aviv. After spending months in a small hotel room, they will soon move to a 45-square-meter (484-square-foot) mobile home in the kibbutz.

Just recently, Schwartzman returned to Kfar Aza to see what was left of his old home. The walls were full of bullet holes, and the windows and doors were open.

"The feeling I had was that your home, your most personal space, had been violated," he told DW.

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Six months have now passed since the October 7 attacks and the start of the Israeli military operation in Gaza that followed. Over 33,000 people in the Palestinian enclave have been killed since Israel began its retaliatory offensive, according to Gaza's........

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