As Israel marks three years since the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, stories of immense bravery and self-sacrifice continue to emerge from a nation focused on recovery and long-term rehabilitation.
For Nil Kirsht-Levi, the three years following the Hamas-led massacre have been defined by profound personal loss, an agonizing wait for her sister who was taken hostage to Gaza, and an unwavering commitment to treating the survivors of the cross-border terror attack.
Kirsht-Levi, a nurse with Clalit Southern District, Israel’s largest healthcare provider, lives in Kibbutz Magen. On the morning of October 7, she treated patients remotely from her safe room while attempting to protect her three children as terrorists invaded the community. Simultaneously, she was desperately trying to contact her sister, Rimon Buchshtab-Kirsht, who resided in 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 approximately 100 people I knew were kidnapped,” Kirsht-Levi told Fox News Digital. “I am fortunate to have a job that sustains me, and a healthy husband and children. We work every day to recover and rehabilitate. Every day, we fall and get back up, but we are here—for ourselves and for others. We have won,” she said.
“We must never forget, but we must also move forward, live every moment, and keep going. It is 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 October 7, Kirsht-Levi’s sister sent a message stating she could hear Arabic and that terrorists had entered her home. Following weeks of uncertainty, Kirsht-Levi saw her sister alive in a Hamas video. After campaigning for her release, she welcomed her home 53 days later, emaciated and scarred, as part of a November 2023 ceasefire deal.
Tragically, her sister’s husband, Yagev Buchshtab, was murdered by the terrorists.
During the 2023 assault launched on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, Michaela Koretsky, a midwife with Clalit’s Southern District, provided improvised lifesaving care to wounded members of Kibbutz Alumim.
Koretsky was awakened by air raid sirens at 6:29 a.m. as Hamas launched thousands of rockets to provide cover for the ground invasion. While sheltering with her husband and children, she received a message from Eran, a member of the kibbutz’s civil defense squad, who began bringing wounded members to her for immediate 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 recalled.
Koretsky treated Amichai on the floor while gunfire echoed outside her kitchen window. She improvised bandages and prepared an IV while communicating with an emergency room doctor from Soroka Medical Center located within the kibbutz, who confirmed the patient was stable.
Next, a patient named Eyal was brought in. He had sustained a gunshot wound to the lung. After Koretsky administered an IV and oxygen, it became clear he required urgent evacuation.
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 into action mode and did what was necessary. I did not think the terrorists would enter my house. One of my children feared they would find the wounded, but I told myself, ‘I am protected. It will not happen,’” she told Fox News Digital.
Her husband, Tzviki, working with the civil defense squad, drove the wounded under fire to Netivot, where they were transferred to ambulances and eventually to Soroka Medical Center.
Prof. Shlomi Codish, director of the hospital in Beersheba, noted that he made three critical decisions early on October 7 that shaped the medical response.
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 decided to retain the night shift, allowing the hospital to begin the day with double its normal staffing. At 7:45 a.m., a mass-casualty incident was declared, and all available staff were ordered to report. Finally, he ordered an immediate increase in blood supplies in anticipation of a surge in casualties.
“We usually start the shift with 50 units of blood. By the end of the day, we had administered 250 units. Had we not ordered more early that morning, we might have run out, which could have cost lives,” Codish told Fox News Digital.
Codish noted that the hospital faced overwhelming challenges, starting with the volume of incoming patients.
“In the first 24 hours, we treated 674 wounded individuals. At the peak, we received more than 80 patients in a single hour, with arrivals occurring every 40 seconds on average,” he said.
“This was one of the largest mass-casualty terror events in human history. The hospital itself was under threat, receiving dozens of missile warnings from the Gaza Strip while attacks occurred simultaneously at numerous other 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 major difficulty was the impact on the staff. “Everyone who arrived had left a family at home that was potentially under attack. They drove through air-raid sirens in unprotected areas, at significant personal risk, just to save lives,” he explained.
The hospital also struggled to maintain care as capacity was reached. Staff had to rapidly clear intensive care beds and operating rooms. Because roads were unsafe, transferring patients to other facilities was impossible during the initial hours, and sending ambulances into the field carried the risk of Hamas ambushes.
“Seeing children with direct traumatic injuries is not something you typically see on a battlefield. We saw elderly people with severe wounds inflicted directly, without any protection,” Codish said, reflecting on the day’s brutality.
“As a medical professional, what we witnessed was beyond words. We saw 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 concluded.
