Commemoration in Vienna: Remembering the Victims of October 7
In front of the memorial for Austrian Jewish Holocaust victims, there was also a remembrance for the 48 Israelis who are still held hostage in the Gaza Strip. "Bring them home," demanded the rally attendees on signs showing the portraits of the hostages who have not yet been freed.
Commemoration in Downtown Vienna
"Let our children go," said Ilan Dalal, who spoke on behalf of the hostages' relatives. His son Guy Gilboa-Dalal (24) has been held in the underground tunnel system of Hamas under the Gaza Strip for almost two years. There, he lives "under inhumane conditions." The prisoners are harassed and starved daily by their guards, Dalal described. The last sign of life from his son in a Hamas propaganda video shows how Guy is used by the terrorists as a human shield against the Israeli army.
Survivor Described Her Thirty-Hour Struggle for Survival on October 7
One of the few survivors of the Hamas attack from Kibbutz Kfar Aza described her thirty-hour struggle for survival on October 7. Faced with terrorists breaking into her house, Ayelet Benedek first hid in the safe room of her house, then out of sheer desperation in her wardrobe. Three times, Hamas fighters searched her house and ransacked the building - but did not find the 63-year-old. Benedek then remained in her safe room for 30 hours - without electricity and a phone battery, but with a book, a flashlight, and an improvised chamber pot - until soldiers of the Israeli army freed her after 30 hours. Later, she learned that her husband was among the approximately 1,200 victims of the massacre.
While psalms and prayers for the dead were spoken in honor of the victims, some rally participants waved Israeli flags and held up signs with the faces of the hostages. "Two years in hell," was written on some. The one-hour event was only briefly disturbed by "Free Palestine" chants from afar. However, the large security and police presence quickly silenced the calls.
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