Survivors of Oct. 7 attack tell their story in Rochester

Brighton, N.Y. (WROC) — Three survivors of the Oct. 7 attack in Israel traveled to Rochester to provide a firsthand account of what happened that day.

Thursday, they talked at Temple B'rith Kodesh in Brighton.

Olga Metzger was one of the speakers and sat down with News 8 after the event, which was hosted by the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester. "I want people to know the stories of the brutality of the attack are true very, very unbelievable," Metzger said. Metzger talked about what occurred after Hamas militants entered Kibbutz Nir Oz, near the Israeli-Gaza border, and began their slaughter... "On that day, we spent 7 hours in our safe room while dozens of terrorists are trying to get into our safe room, open the door, break in and we were lucky enough that they didn't succeed in doing that," she recalled. More than 100 people of the 400-person community were either killed or taken hostage.

Metzger's in-laws were among those pulled into Gaza.

The violence shocked Metzger, but also the decision to target Nir Oz as she says many in their community had supported a two-state solution and volunteered to connect Gazans with medical care. "Many of the people who had volunteered, they are now dead because they were murdered on Oct. 7 or because they are now being held hostage in Gaza," she said. After October 7th, Israel attacked Hamas in Gaza and war has been raging ever since with tens of thousands of Palestinians dying in the process all while around 100 people are still being held hostage.

Metzger now calls on everyone to come together to find an agreement to stop the killing and return the hostages. "You can call it an absence of war, you don't have to call it a peace resolution," she said.