A tiny voice trembles.
“Mother, it’s Daria. Dad’s been murdered. Stav too. Assist! Daddy’s lifeless on the ground. I’m scared.”
What follows is the recording from October 7, 2023, of a dialog between Daria Karp, then 10 years previous, who was confined to the protected room of her house in Kibbutz Re’im on the Gaza border together with her little brother Lavi, and her mom, Re’ut.
It’s certainly one of three conversations from that day that may be heard by way of earphones at a brand new October 7 Education Center within the southern metropolis of Sderot, which was introduced to the press late final month.
The middle goals to create an immersive expertise utilizing screens and different multimedia know-how. Key to the expertise are the digital actuality headsets by way of which one can digitally meet five survivors and heroes from the bloodbath on the Supernova social gathering close to Kibbutz Re’im, which noticed 364 revellers murdered and 44 kidnapped to the Gaza Strip.
The horror of the day — through which some 1,200 primarily civilians had been massacred by Hamas gunmen alongside the Israeli facet of the Gaza border and greater than 250 had been kidnapped to the coastal strip — is explored by way of stunning private accounts and real-time recordings, resembling younger Daria Karp’s report of her father’s homicide.
Dvir Karp, 46, and his girlfriend Stav Kimhi, 35, were murdered by Hamas terrorists whereas defending Karp’s youngsters. Daria and Lavi had been rescued after 9 hours and reunited with their mother, Re’ut, 24 hours after the nightmare had begun.
The multimedia training heart commemorating these chilling moments is housed in a big room rented from the Sderot Municipality. It’s situated throughout the highway from a hill that affords clear views to the border with Gaza simply 750 meters (half a mile) away, to Beit Hanoun past, and even to Gaza Metropolis on the horizon, the place smoke billowed from IDF bombing.
View from a lookout in Sderot, southern Israel. The border with Gaza is seen the place the earth seems white, September 29, 2025. (Sue Surkes/Occasions of Israel)
The hill, which can quickly have elevator entry, is the primary cease on a go to to the training heart, which opened in April. A couple of thousand individuals have already visited, with a aim of 40,000 guests per 12 months.
A number of screens adorn the middle’s partitions. Some present info gathered by the Kan news organization in regards to the geography and timeline of the occasions of October 7 and the civilians and troopers who fell on that day or had been kidnapped to Gaza.
Contained in the October 7 Training Middle, Sderot, southern Israel. (ISRAEL-is)
One other line of screens, like a row of home windows, is used to current an account of what occurred as realistically as doable, combining video clips, telephone recordings, information broadcasts, and the sounds of rockets, gun battles, and extra. (Nothing graphic is proven.)
One other set of photographs applauds the heroism of the IDF since October 7 and the exceptional response of civil society to the tens of hundreds evacuated from the southern and northern borders in the course of the early days of Israel’s army response to Hamas in Gaza and the fear group Hezbollah in Lebanon. Based on Ilan Turitz, who manages excursions and academic content material, this goals to strengthen viewers’ resilience.
Footage of Evyatar David being kidnapped to the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, as proven on the new October 7 Training Middle in Sderot, southern Israel, September 29, 2025. (Sue Surkes/Occasions of Israel)
Chilling tales
The VR challenge was spearheaded by Stephen Smith, who ran Steven Spielberg’s USC Shoah Basis for over a decade.
In a single presentation, Mazal Tazazo, now 35, described how she and her good friend, Daniel Cohen, excitedly deliberate for weeks for the all-night rave, however how the social gathering become a nightmare as Hamas terrorists invaded, below a rain of missiles, spraying revelers with gunfire and raping many earlier than murdering them.
In minute element, she takes the viewer to the place by the highway the place she, Daniel, and Daniel’s good friend Yohai Ben Zecharia hid within the grass, relating how she was smacked at the back of the top with a rifle butt and left for lifeless, and the way she regained consciousness to see that Daniel and Yohai had been slaughtered. Because the gunmen set the grass on fireplace, she managed to flee, bleeding closely, to an empty automotive to cover till she was rescued by “an angel,” Itay Aharoni, who had additionally been on the social gathering. Her pals’ our bodies had been so badly burned that it took per week to determine them.
Mazal Tazazo (left) and Bedouin police detective Remo Salman Elhozyel, survivors of October 7, 2023, pose outdoors the brand new October 7 Training Middle in Sderot, southern Israel, September 29, 2025. (Courtesy)
On the press occasion, police detective Remo Salman Elhozyel, now 38, a Bedouin Arab, who was serving to to protect the social gathering, associated how he drove forwards and backwards in his automotive for 3 hours rescuing terrified revelers, spending 15 hours total battling terrorists within the space. A married father of three, he’s at present on go away from the police power, receiving trauma therapy.
Concentrating on Gen Z abroad
The middle is run by ISRAEL-is, based in 2017 to coach younger Israelis to share their private tales with others of their age abroad and enhance the state’s picture.
It started by coaching hundreds of younger Israelis who had simply accomplished their obligatory military service earlier than embarking on the normal huge journey abroad. It has since added packages for brand spanking new IDF recruits, coaching in pro-Israel social media, visits by younger delegations to primarily US college campuses, excursions of October 7 areas for Israelis and abroad guests, and extra. Each Nova survivor Tazazo and police detective Elhozyel act as abroad emissaries.
Turitz defined, “We hope that guests don’t simply witness the story of October 7, however that they really feel it, carry it, and understand that by including their voice, they might help write the following chapter, certainly one of resilience, unity, and enduring function.”
He mentioned the middle may accommodate teams of as much as 50 at a time, break up between visiting the hill and the middle.
CEO Yotam Ivry (left) and Content material Director Ilan Turitz outdoors the brand new October 7 Training Middle in Sderot, southern Israel. (Courtesy)
Requested how a comparatively few Israelis may persuade abroad social-media savvy Gen Z children to alter their minds within the face of a torrent of data telling them Israel is committing genocide, Yotam Ivry, the CEO, simply three months into the job, talked about nuance. (Based on the Hamas-controlled Gaza well being ministry, more than 66,000 Gazans have been killed within the ongoing Swords of Iron Conflict. The determine can’t be confirmed and doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.)
“We deliver Israelis to inform their private tales. We present that the state of affairs is extra complicated than what they [the young people overseas] see. We attempt to open hearts. It’s not political. We don’t ship them with messaging directions. They need to say how they really feel. It might be a youngster from Ariel [a large West Bank settlement], Tel Aviv, or a Druze village; individuals are typically shocked to fulfill an Israeli Arab.,” mentioned Ivry.
One trick ISRAEL-is makes use of is to reach at an abroad campus and arrange a desk with VR units, giving no trace about an Israeli connection. Passing college students are inspired to placed on the VR units. “After watching, they’ll ask, ‘Why didn’t you inform me it’s about Israel?’” mentioned Ivry. “We are going to reply, ‘Why do we have to,’ and attempt to begin a dialog.”
College students at Toronto College, Canada, watch digital actuality footage from October 7, 2023, offered by ISRAEL-is throughout winter 2024. (ISRAEL-is)
He added that ISRAEL-is trainees had visited 290 primarily US college campuses in 2025 and had related in-depth with round 30,000 people, each in Israel and overseas. The aim, he went on, was to have such interactions with 150,000 individuals over the following three years and 800,000 over the approaching decade.
The visits are at present organized by abroad Jewish organizations, resembling Hillel and Chabad, in addition to Christian ones, together with Passages.
Ivry mentioned Israel was working to broaden partnerships in a bid to achieve each younger Jews and non-Jews who “don’t need to hear,” including, “We aren’t specializing in the extremes. We predict most individuals are open sufficient to hear. And we do see an actual change (after conversations).”
Nova survivor Tazazo, whose mother and father immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia, recalled attempting to fulfill with a gaggle of black ladies within the US.
“Younger individuals are scared of being rejected for being something aside from pro-Palestinian,” she mentioned.
Police officer Remo Salman Elhozyel described a extra optimistic expertise from his go to to Toronto final 12 months.
“I met a gaggle of individuals from a Center Japanese background and began speaking Arabic,” he associated. “One of many ladies mentioned she couldn’t imagine I used to be an Arab from Israel. She noticed the footage on the VR set, took off the headgear, in tears, and mentioned, ‘I’m sorry.’”
