Meet two heroes of October 7

On October 7, Israeli Major General (ret.) Noam Tibon and his wife, Gali, set off on a harrowing journey from Tel Aviv to Nahal Oz to rescue their son, Amir, and his family.

Along the way, they faced a seemingly impossible decision: stop and help others who needed their assistance or keep driving to try and save their loved ones?

Amir Tibon, a correspondent for Haaretz, documented his family’s experience that day in his book, The Gates of Gaza: A Story of Betrayal, Survival, and Hope in Israel’s Borderlands . At the same time, their ordeal has drawn global attention.

Now, the father and son are traveling to Chicago to speak at the JUF Women’s Philanthropy 2026 Lion Event on Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 11 a.m. at Ateres Ayala in Skokie.

In a written interview, edited for length, the two men shared their story.

Q. Nearly two years later, how are you doing?

Noam: Like many people in Israel, October 7 is not over yet…October 7 will end when the last hostage is released, and the soldiers are back defending the border communities.

Amir: Overall, [my wife], Miri, and I feel lucky that our daughters are doing well. But they’ve surprised us by how much they remember the events of that day, and they continue to talk about it… They keep asking us about specific things that happened, and also about the current situation – when will the war end? When will it be quiet and peaceful again in Nahal Oz?

How did your own military training, Noam, prepare you for your actions on October 7?

Noam: I had to use all of my experience as a lifelong fighter. There are things I learned at age 19, when I joined Sayeret Matkal, Israel’s most important commando unit, that I found myself executing on October 7, at age 61. While my rank is Major General, for large parts of that day, I was a simple soldier. I ran under bullet fire, I evacuated injured soldiers with my car, I took the weapon of a dead officer and used it to fire back at the terrorists, I scanned homes in Kibbutz Nahal Oz from door to door with an incredible group of young fighters.

We’ve heard many harrowing survival stories from that day. Why do you think your experience is drawing so much attention?

Noam: The dilemmas that Gali and I experienced on that day–should we start driving toward Amir and the girls? What if we meet dangers along the way? What if we get there and find them no longer alive? And the fact that twice along the way we had to stop, and turn around, to save the lives of strangers, which is something people are often surprised to learn, because it represents a moral dilemma that is hard to imagine. People identify with those parts of the story–and also with what happened to Amir and Miri, who had to keep two very young girls quiet for almost 10 hours while terrorists surrounded them.

What future do you see for yourselves and the state of Israel?

Amir: We need to rebuild Nahal Oz and all the communities that were destroyed on October 7, as part of the larger task of rebuilding Israel. It starts with bringing back the hostages; and creating a national commission of inquiry that will investigate what went wrong on October 7, so that something like this never happens again.

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The JUF Women’s Philanthropy 2026 Lion Event on Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 11 a.m. at Ateres Ayala in Skokie. Couvert: $100. Valet is available for $25; self-parking is limited. Dietary laws observed.

The event honors philanthropic women who make an individual gift at the Lion of Judah ($5,000) level, and above. To inspire future generations and to ensure the continuity of our traditions of tzedakah, we invite you to bring your daughters, daughters in law, and/or granddaughters with you to this event. 

Register here . Questions? Please contact 312-357-4825 or [email protected].

Julie Mangurten Weinberg is a Chicago-based freelance journalist with 25+ years of experience in broadcast, print, and digital media.