Young Israeli basketball players whose hometowns were destroyed in an Oct. 7 Hamas attack reunited for the first time to play basketball with their hometown teams in New York.
The 19 former members of the Hapoel Eshkol high school team reunited in New York state last week after being separated in the aftermath of the unimaginable terrorist attacks on their hometown, according to Project 24, the nonprofit organization that organized the trip.
“We were all evacuated from different places,” Eshkol captain Guy Moses Auerbach, 19, told a few dozen spectators before his team’s game Thursday against Ramaz School, a Jewish high school on the Upper East Side.
“The whole team has disbanded. I haven’t played a single game this season.”
With students watching from a packed auditorium, the tense match ended in a 45-45 tie.
The athletes from the Eshkol region were from some of the hardest-hit kibbutzim (small farming communities), including Beeri and Nir Oz, when terrorist groups massacred 1,200 people last year and captured another 250.
The youth lost their families and coaches in the brutal attack, many of whose homes were destroyed, and the terrorist group took some of their relatives hostage.
Most of the players are currently living in temporary housing and hotels around the country, according to Project 24.
One of the players, Noam Orr, was held hostage for 50 days and only learned his mother had been murdered after he was released.
Alternatively, the trip may have taken on even more meaning for him after he recently learned that his father, who was also being held hostage, had been killed, Project 24 said.
Moses Auerbach’s grandfather, Gadi Moses, remains held captive, Auerbach told The Washington Post, adding that his grandmother was killed and his grandfather’s second wife was captured but later released.
“We’re all from the same local council,” Auerbach explained of his former team, “we all know each other, we all know the people who died.”
Moses Auerbach said he and his family try to stay positive, but “it’s really hard.”
“Basketball is my way of life,” the center-power forward explained. “It’s where I go when I want to get away from the world and hang out with my friends.”
“It’s really fun to have the whole team together and play basketball again.”
Project 24 sponsored the team’s 10-day trip, which began in Port Washington on May 15 and ended in Manhattan on May 24.
During the trip, they played seven games and a practice match against local public schools, Jewish schools and Jewish community centers.
The group of players and four coaches also took in a Knicks playoff game, a Yankees game, a WNBA game between the New York Liberty and Chicago Sky and a Broadway production of “The Lion King,” according to the nonprofit organization.
Nahal Lev Aptalon, 20, who scored more than 10 points in Thursday’s match and now plays professionally in Israel, said his parents were inside when Hamas burned their house down.
They miraculously survived.
“I was woken up at 7:30 a.m. because my father called me,” Reb Aptalon said of Oct. 7. “I didn’t wake up because I was sleeping really soundly. My father just told me that there were terrorists all over the kibbutz and that we should close the safe room and stay calm.”
He recalled hiding alone in a secure room until the IDF removed him at about 9 that night.
“That was really the hard part,” he said.
The 20-year-old said basketball helped him recover.
“[In] “In basketball you have to really concentrate on the game,” he says. “You can’t think too much about other things while you’re playing, so I think this is a good distraction. After you play, you naturally feel better,” says Reb Aptalon.
Another player, Roy Beinart, said he remained in the Sde Nitzan settlement but his family refused to return.
“Now I’m 16 years old and I live alone in a house two hours away from my family,” Beinart told The Post.
He said parting ways with his teammates was tough, but continuing to play basketball helped him get through the difficulties.
“It’s hard to accept that we won’t be able to see many of these people anymore, or that we won’t be able to see them for a while,” Beinart said.
“For me, it’s a lot easier with the ball,” he said. “Just a little bit of exercise motivates me.”
Project 24 founder Daniel Gradus said the organization tries to help foster optimism among young people.
“They need something else. They need comfort. They need hugs,” Gradus said.
“The best thing for these kids is to get all their energy and aggression out on the court with their friends,” he said. “Playing basketball helps them clear their heads.”
The war, which began with last year’s invasion of the Jewish state, will enter its eighth month next week.
