It will be terror or us, says killed Israeli hostage’s mother on eve of October 7th

Iris Haim is the mother of slain October 7th Hamas terror attack Israeli hostage Yotam Haim. Her son was mistakenly killed in an IDF soldier fire when he was trying to escape from Hamas captivity on December 15, 2023.

Since then Iris has travelled all across the Israel and to US as well to share her grievance and her experience as a mother of slain young son who had so much promise in life. Below is the interview of Iris with this scribe where she shares her insight about the tragedy and the over general feeling of Israeli citizens in view of terror emanating towards them from Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.

Question: What is your feeling regarding what happened last year on October 7th?

Iris: After one year I see 7th October a very strong wake up call to us Israelis and Jews all over the world. Hamas they waited for 20 years to destroy and butcher us. 7th of October for me is Hamas’s attempt to destroy Israel.

Now Lebanon is also doing the same terror with us in face of Hezbollah’s terror. Its now the feeling that we can’t live with peace with them. The army has done wonderfully well in our country. We proved all the world that we are a resilient nation.

Question: Yotam’s death is purportedly happened due to mistaken fire of Israeli soldiers…your reaction?

Iris: After their escape from Hamas captivity Yotam was mistakenly fired upon by IDF soldiers with two others. They tried to reach the army…they were free between December 10th to 15th. IDF soldier took their life by mistake as he thought that they were terrorist. I contacted army after his death and I told them that we are not angry and we hugged them and gave them love. We also invited army personnel to our house and hugged them. It was a mistake and I didn’t judged them, rather I blame Hamas for everything.

My point of view was Yotam was always a emotional person so that’s why he may be in depression all the time. Yotam is living with me everyday, and everyone now knows him. He wanted to be a Hero.

Question: Do you think Israeli govt has done better in last one year to bring perpetrators to justice?

Iris: Israeli govt is trying to end the war, they are trying to finish Hamas in Gaza. Justice for me is to end this organization. They want to continue with their terror and that’s why I want to end them. Our govt is continuously trying  to do this.

Question: How does it feel now whether Israelis in general feel safer or not viz a viz last year?

Iris: I have lived near Gaza for 40 years, I have never feared anything…we Israelis are always very confident…we are very proud that we are attacking the terrorists in their hideouts…we Israelis are very brave and we are really feeling safer.

Question: How has your family coped after the death of Yotam especially you being a mother?

Iris: My husband and I have never been angry because my better half and father of Yotam was also a soldier, so he understood… we understood immediately that this is my army…my daughter was also not angry…but my 32 years old son didn’t felt good about it, he was very perturbed over the death of Yotam by the hands of IDF soldier.

One year later we are very very strong although we miss Yotam but we also feel that Yotam is here with us. We are living our life and being strong, we go back to the music in memory of Yotam…we are all together like a family, because some of the hostages families has been in shambles after October 7th…but we are doing things to deal with the grief.

Question: Lastly your feeling how this all mayhem will end?

Iris: I don’t know how this will all end…I am hoping that peace comes back…we came here to our land, there is no other place for us Jews to live. Iran and its proxies are hell bent to bring war to us…and I think this terror will never go away, we have to be strong to face these terrorists for the long time to come.

Our soldiers die every day, our best sons go to army and we are paying heavy price with their lives to live here in Israel. The only democracy in the Middle East is under terror threat all the time. Now we understood that this terror will not go away. This is us or them.