Exclusive | Oct. 7 survivor reveals what life is like today as grim tragedies persist

A woman who barely escaped with her life Oct.7, 2023, has revealed the excruciating emotional battle she and other survivors are still fighting, weeks after one of them took his own life.Maayan Dee, 26, was one of 3,500 revelers at Israel’s Supernova music festival when Hamas attacked the event as part of its onslaught, killing 378 people and taking 44 hostages from it.“My life was cut in half,” Dee told The Post of that fated day, which left a total of more than 1,200 people dead in what was the deadliest single day of attack in the Jewish state’s history.

“You have the previous life, and then life post-Nova.”Born in Israel, Dee moved to the UK at 6, developing interests in martial arts and piano.She left college after a year to join the Israel Defense Force in 2019 and credits her military training with helping her make the tactical decisions that saved her life and those of many around her nearly three years ago.“I started hearing rockets, but it wasn’t apparent what was going on yet,” she said of Oct.7, adding that the dropping missiles sounded like “bass from the music, but offbeat.”After recognizing the sound of automatic gunfire, she realized this was not the IDF responding to Hamas.Dee said she knew it couldn’t be her country’s own troops because “we are trained not to use automatic weapons … they’re much less safe and accurate.”Dee was speaking after an Oct.

7 survivor took his life earlier this month at the grave of his slain girlfriend.“I had 14 friends who were with me who all — thank God — survived, but each of us is taking it their own way,” she said.“It’s more difficult to find meaning in life now, because a lot of us say, ‘I got this life back as a gift.How do I go back to work?’ ” she said.“You’ve got the extreme gratitude for being alive mixed with the desire to disappear and not feel this pain anymore.”Dee quoted fellow festival survivor Roei Shalev, who ended up taking his own life on t...