Life After Captivity: October 7 Survivors Face New Realities and PTSD
Survivors Segev Kalfon and Maxim Harkin reflect on their lives a year after returning from Hamas captivity, detailing the ongoing psychological struggles, public scrutiny, and hurdles in state rehabilitation.
A year has passed since Segev Kalfon returned home from Hamas captivity, but he says he can no longer return to the life he knew before October 7. "I've done things in the past year that I didn't manage to do in a whole lifetime before," he said. "Everything is new to me. These are completely new lives in terms of my actions and what I've learned about myself."
Already in the first month after his release, Kalfon flew to Switzerland and spoke before some 1,500 people. Since then, his lectures have turned into a job that he also defines as a mission. In captivity, he recalled, he would turn to the Creator every morning and ask to return home and be given the opportunity to be a better person. "I think the path I am walking now is the path the Creator would want me to walk. People hear a tiny bit of my story and tell me it changed their outlook on life. My story actually manages to influence people."
The Nightmare That Follows
Yet the confidence he projects on stage also hides a different, nightmarish reality. "No matter how nicely dressed I look to you and how confidently I speak, in the end no one sees what I go through at nights. In the tunnels I dreamed of home, I dreamed of meeting my family. That was my way to escape reality. Today, when I am at home, the dreams have flipped and I dream of captivity."
"I would like to go back to being like everyone else, so they don't look at me like some superstar. And still, I know people prayed for me and fought for me, and they deserve for me to look them in the eye and show gratitude."
The Struggle for Rehabilitation
Amid all this, he also deals with a new life as a person whom the entire country recognizes. Sometimes the public embrace warms the heart, and sometimes he just wants to eat quietly in a restaurant. Regarding state assistance, Kalfon expresses frustration with bureaucratic hurdles. "I don't want the state to throw a million dollars at me, but I don't want to depend on it. At some point I will manage on my own. But to begin with, even with the minimal help we ask for, they put sticks in our wheels."
Maxim Harkin, another survivor of Hamas captivity, shares similar struggles with sleeplessness, triggers, and the heavy burden of survival guilt. Harkin lost close friends at the Nova music festival and continues to grapple with the psychological toll of the tunnels and the ongoing division within Israeli society. Both men emphasize the urgent need for national unity and healing as they navigate their arduous roads to recovery.
