A year of hope. A year of pain.

Shlomi Berger's 20-year-old daughter Agam was taken hostage by Hamas militants on October 7th, 2023. She was at a remote outpost of the Israeli Defense Forces and it was the beginning of her second day as a soldier. Her family hopes and prays she is still alive, though It has been months since the last sign of life. Nour Swirki is a Palestinian journalist and young mother of two who is now stranded in Gaza alongside her husband. Her two children, parents and siblings all crossed into Cairo when the border was briefly opened. Noor hoped she could follow soon after but that plan was scuttled when the border was abruptly closed again. Shlomi and Noor are just two of the many thousands whose lives have been upended by the events of October 7th and the year of war that followed. For both, it has been a year of agony punctuated by small moments of joy that somehow carried them through it all. This the story of that year, in their own words. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.