News
'I have to hope the IDF will bring my family home' says survivor of Nir Oz massacre
Eitan Cunion describes how Hamas terrorists ripped away his loved ones on October 7
November 2, 2023 12:12
Eitan Cunion describes how Hamas terrorists ripped away his loved ones on October 7
November 2, 2023 12:12Crying comes in many forms. Sometimes it is loud and uncontrollable. Other times there is a pause, a voice shakes, a sniff. When I talk on the phone to Eitan Cunio, a survivor of the October 7 massacre, the cry is silent; he simply can’t speak. He’s run out of tears.
Every survivor has a horror story. They’ve witnessed something worse than most of us could possibly imagine even in our worst nightmares.
But Eitan’s pain continues in his waking hours — eight members of his family are missing, including his twin brother Davide, his younger brother Ariel and his three-year-old twin nieces.
It's too painful to even contemplate the agony he is in. It feels cruel asking him to speak. But like many other Israelis, Eitan knows that he has to tell his story.
He has to be believed. And he has to do whatever he can to help get his family home. “I just want an end to this horrible chaos,” he says.
Eitan was born on Kibbutz Nir Oz, where he looks after chickens.
The farm was one of the epicentres of the massacre and the community that has suffered most in percentage terms. Out of a population of 400, more than a quarter are either dead or missing.
Eitan, 33, his wife Stav and their girls, aged two and four, had their house set alight by terrorists on October 7.
Petrol was spread over the door of his safe room and the house set on fire.
For five hours, as searing heat and smoke fumes filled the room, he and his family passed in and out of consciousness.
Eitan's younger brother Ariel and his girlfriend Arbel Yahud (Photo: handout)
There was nothing he could do but try and block the door of the safe room — his girls’ bedroom — with towels. Even as they, in desperation, tried to escape the room to get away from the fire, they found they couldn’t; the heat had expanded the metal handle.
He tried to open the window but it was jammed tight too. They were locked in.
Pulling the air-conditioning unit off the wall gave them just the tiniest amount of air, which may have saved their lives.
Every time he awoke, he said goodbye to his family, telling them how much he loved them. They were out cold but looked like they were “sleeping” — the word he uses to mean “unconscious”. He wrote pleas to his friends on the kibbutz: “Someone help us. We are burning.”
Finally, when help came, the family emerged from the wreckage of their house to a dystopian world. Bodies on the floor, shots still ringing out, and more than half his family missing.
