Maya and Itay Regev ran for their lives, were shot, taken hostage and endured torture after Hamas terrorists attacked the Nova music festival that they were attending on Oct. 7.
And the siblings, age 22 and 19, say they only lived to tell their stories because “God was with us.”
“October 7 was one big miracle, there were so many things that could have killed us that day,” Itay recently told a crowd in the Upper West Side.
The siblings told the horrific tale of how they were captured by Hamas terrorists at a recent private New York event — describing in graphic detail how they were gravely wounded and then held in brutal conditions for weeks.
Maya and Itay were partying with their friend Omer in the early hours of the morning of Oct. 7 when Hamas launched the deadly invasion that left 1,200 people dead — and changed the young Israelis’ lives forever.
“I remember dancing with my friends, I look at the phone at 6:25 [a.m.] and I was like, ‘Oh my god we have so much time, we’re having so much fun,’” said Maya, at the event sponsored by Unit 11741, a charity that supports the Israeli military.
Five minutes later, rockets began raining down from Gaza and police ordered the party to evacuate, warning that terrorists had infiltrated the music festival. Maya, Itay and Omer ran for an hour and a half on foot before the siblings were found by Hamas terrorists and shot.
Maya, thinking she was going to die, frantically called her father, Ilan, for what she believed would be the last time the two would ever speak.
“I told him I love him, they are coming to kill us,” she said.
In his panic, Ilan took his weapon and tried to drive to the Nova Festival to rescue his children, but police stopped him.
The Regev siblings and their friend were subsequently grabbed by Hamas gunmen, thrown into the back of a pickup truck and hauled off to Gaza.
Maya, Itay and Omer were dumped in a home in Gaza. Itay and Omer were held together but Maya was taken to a separate floor.
“My leg was really broken… broken is a pretty word. The bullet hit my bone and it crushed six centimeters of it. My foot wasn’t connected at all to the rest of my leg. I spent eight days like this,” Maya told the tear-stricken audience.
Itay was also wounded.
“The first day, they took out Itay’s bullet with tweezers with no anesthesia,” Maya said.
“I thought the most about my parents,” she said.
Omer changed Itay’s bandage every two days because no doctor came to see him.
The three hostages were given very little to eat, just boxes of grape juice, bread and some salt. Maya hoarded her grape juice rations, not knowing when the food supply would cease.
Remembering that her brother enjoys grape juice she begged her captors to allow them bring some of her juice boxes to him. The terrorists obliged.
Little did she know, Itay had been praying for exactly that so he and Omer could make a kiddush — a Jewish ritual over wine or grape juice — on Friday nights to sanctify the sabbath.
“When I got the grape juice it felt like my prayers were answered, after that time we got scared a lot less, because we felt like God was with us,” Itay said.
Throughout his ordeal, Itay never lost his faith in miracles.
“When I saw that I was really alive on Oct. 8, I never stopped believing I would come home.”
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Maya was transported to a Hamas-run hospital where she was operated on.
“I got stitched twice without any anesthesia. When they removed the bandage it was very painful. They didn’t want me to scream so they gave me a lot of ketamine. . . I was a total mess.”
To this day Maya doesn’t remember what transpired those two weeks.
“At some point they ran out of ketamine and the other anesthesia, and they started doing it without anything.”
While in the hospital Maya, found out her guard was either friends with or related to the guards at the home where Itay and Omer were still held prisoner. The guard allowed them to pass notes.
“Every time I got a note from Itay it was a sigh of relief,” Maya said.
“This was the thing that kept me going.”
After 50 days in captivity, Maya was released. Itay came home four days later.
Omer remains in captivity.
Maya said that when she reunited with her brother in Israel the two shared “the best hug.”
“We can’t wait to hug Omer like this.”
Maya spent eight months in the hospital undergoing surgery and physical therapy to learn how to walk again.
However, despite their suffering, the two siblings haven’t lost sight of how blessed they are to be back safe with their family.
“It’s a big miracle that I’m even sitting here talking to you,” Itay said.
