Rising from the Ashes: A Mother's Fight for Survival

On the morning of October 7, 2023, Ellay Golan hid in the bomb shelter of her home with her husband Ariel, their 18-month-old daughter Yael, and the family dog. They tried to keep the toddler occupied as about 70 terrorists streamed through Kfar Aza and surrounded their home.

“We locked the shelter door and waited there with a kitchen knife,” she remembers.

“The experience was so strange: we were so worried, but we [also] had a one and a half year old daughter to support; to make her feel relaxed and not as upset as we felt. We played with her, read books and tried to make it 'normal'.”

She and her husband had pushed a shelf against the door of the room that doubled as their daughter's bedroom. Through the window they heard men screaming in Arabic, interrupted by nearby automatic gunfire.

The morning from hell

A year ago, on October 7, Israel suffered a nationwide traumatic terrorist attack that killed 1,195 people, kidnapped 251 and dramatically changed the lives of millions.

As Hamas terrorists rampaged across southern Israel, many of the region's kibbutzim were stormed with lethal force. In one of these kibbutzim, Kfar Aza, more than 60 civilians were brutally massacred and 18 were kidnapped to Gaza.

Ellay Golan, a medical student who managed to escape her home with her family, is one of the survivors of this attack.

Although the event left her emotionally and physically scarred, one year later she has made incredible efforts to overcome the many challenges of the past year and continue her career.

Set on fire

Inside their shelter, the Golan family heard the sounds of chaos echoing in the air outside.

In the kibbutz group chat, a neighbor asked someone to help her husband, who had been shot in the leg and was bleeding to death in a nearby yard.

Ellay, who was completing a three-month internship at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva, wanted to help. But after reading more panicked messages, she learned that there were nearly 30 attackers in the area around her neighbor – making it impossible to rush to his aid.

“It's a feeling of guilt that I still have inside me. Because he’s dead,” Ellay says, her voice shaking. “I know I couldn't help him. I couldn't get there at all. But I could have tried – but if I had, my daughter wouldn’t have had a mother.”

As the attack on Kfar Aza continued, the gunfire and shouting grew louder as the terrorists broke into the Golan family home and broke open the shelter door. Ellay and Ariel began throwing knives, toys, books – anything they could find to keep the men away.

“They shouted at us: ‘Come out! Come! Give us money! Come out!' And we told them, “Take the jewelry, take the money, whatever you find, just leave us, just go.”

After a while the men temporarily withdrew. But soon after, smoke began pouring into the room as the terrorists set the house on fire.

“They tried to smoke us out,” she says. “We knew if we went out the window they would catch us. We didn’t even think about kidnapping – we just thought they would kill us.”

Ellay and Ariel wrapped clothes around their daughter's face and around their own. Trapped in a room that filled with choking smoke, they decided to escape through their burning home and escape.

Barefoot, wearing only a T-shirt and underwear, Ellay wrapped her arms around Yael and held her close to her chest, and the parents ran into the burning hallway. Her dog stayed behind in fear of the flames and died of smoke inhalation.

“We just ran through the fire. They saw us from the window and started throwing stones and anything they could find.”

The terrorists who surrounded the house took the family's cooking gas tank and threw it into the house as the family ran through the flames. It exploded.

“It was like a flamethrower around us,” she remembers.

At this point, second and third degree burns covered 60% of Ellay's body, 45% of her husband's body and 30% of her baby's body. The pain was overwhelming.

“That was the first moment we thought about giving up. There was fire all around us, we were in a lot of pain…we didn't know what to do. But I saw that my daughter was still alive. So I told my husband we will keep fighting no matter what. We will save her.”

left to their fate

The family ran through the house and into the bathroom, where Ellay began spraying cold water on Yael, herself, and Ariel, who was blocking the door.

“They heard the water working in the bathroom, so they broke the window, took whatever they could find and tried to stab us with it,” Ellay says. “They found a knife outside, took a broom handle, broke it and tried to stab us with it.”

When the men outside finally saw the house beginning to collapse, they gave up and left them to their fate. They escaped through the bathroom window and ran into the kibbutz's agricultural fields.

“Our open wounds became infected because we hid in the dirt and bushes,” she says.

Ellay hid in the cab of a tractor and cared for Yael to keep her calm and hydrated.

About an hour later, she noticed that her daughter was losing consciousness after inhaling so much smoke – and although she didn't know it at the time, Ellay herself was suffering from chemical pneumonia, a lung irritation caused by inhaling toxins was caused.

In a final life-saving decision, Ellay led her family back across the fields and returned to the kibbutz entrance, where they were met by IDF soldiers. She gave the soldiers instructions on how to care for Yael and fell unconscious.

The family was flown by helicopter to Sheba Medical Center.

A body lies on a bed

Yael was placed in an induced coma for eight days. Ellay, the most seriously injured of the three, was placed in an induced coma for 58 days.

During this time, Ariel and Yael were discharged from hospital and Ellay was placed on life support for 10 days due to the collapse of one of her lungs.

She says of the doctors in Sheba: “The staff fought for my life.”

After she woke up from the coma, Ellay was no longer able to walk.

“I had lost 12 kilos [26.4 pounds] from muscles and fat. I couldn't move my legs. I couldn't move my hands. I had a tracheostomy and therefore couldn't speak. I couldn't eat. I couldn't drink. I was a body lying on a bed.”

After months in the Sheba rehabilitation center, she gradually regained her ability to function.

“Slowly, slowly, slowly they taught me to walk and move my hands again,” she says. “Now I can bathe my daughter. Three months ago I couldn’t even imagine it.”

The strength to carry on

Today the whole family is back on their feet, but their recovery is not yet complete. Ellay and Yael wear pressure suits that apply even pressure to their healing burns to prevent severe scarring.

“We’re trying to make it as normal as possible,” she says. “Our daughter is the most powerful girl ever. She is amazing. She is funny and cheerful. She is the light of our lives.”

After her release from rehab in August, Ellay will soon begin her residency at Soroka. Although she originally planned to become an OB/GYN, she now plans to specialize in ICU care and anesthesia.

When asked what gave her the strength to make the crucial, life-saving decisions that allowed them to survive the horrific events of October 7, she has a simple and immediate answer.

“We knew we had to fight for our daughter’s life. We thought we were going to die anyway. But the motivation was to keep them alive no matter what,” she says.

“And now we always say she saved our lives.”