SPECIAL REPORT

Surviving Oct. 7

A young family made it through 27 hours of terror. Then Netanyahu took Elon Musk to their destroyed home for a photo op.

After their home was destroyed in the Oct. 7 attack, a photograph of Doron and Itamar Cohen remained intact on the wall — touched by fire, but not burned. (Rina Castelnuovo)

Doron and Itamar Cohen were building a life in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where Itamar spent part of his childhood. “I wanted my children to get that life,” Dorin said. “It was a magical place to live.”

Then, on Oct. 7, they survived 27 hours under fire by Hamas. 52 members of the kibbutz were murdered in the attack, and 18 kidnapped.

Now, Dorin told editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren, the family has become “refugees in our own country.” And when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently took Elon Musk to their destroyed home for a photo op, the inhumanity of their situation began to feel even more intense.

“We felt like it doesn’t matter what we’ve been through, it’s just a good picture,” Dorin said.

A crib in the wreckage of the Cohens’ home. (Rina Castelnuovo)

But it does matter what they’ve been through — “a saga where electricity, cell-phone batteries, and the military all failed and a young couple in love persevered with the help of a silly cartoon character and a child’s comb,” Jodi writes.

This is their story — a story everyone should know.

It took “a lot of small miracles” for her family to survive Oct. 7, Dorin said. (Rina Castelnuovo)

Today, at 1 pm E.T.: Join Jodi, reporting live from Israel, and senior columnist Rob Eshman in conversation about the war. Register now ➤

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Edited by Talya Zax.

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