I cried non-stop for 15 hours, says victim who hid in a bush

VICTIMS of Israel's worst terror attack have told how they are coping with the memories and ongoing trauma of the Hamas assault a year ago today.

- Rowan Griffiths

"I cried non-stop for 15 hours," said Israeli Maya Alper, 25, who lives in a community in Guatemala, 7,500 miles from the attack on the Nova Festival near Gaza where she nearly died.

Amid the first shots of October 7 she hid in terror in a bush as Hamas gunmen slaughtered her friends and tried to kill her. They were so close she could see the "black hatred" in their eyes.

She hid for six hours until Israeli troops arrived, not realising that her younger brother, a soldier, was fighting Hamas just over a mile away.

Maya recorded a video, remaining calm, helicopters above her, and told the camera, "I am so f****** proud of myself" as she celebrated her survival.

She said of the Hamas gunman she saw: "I have never seen such eyes, it is so hard to forget. It was pure black and there was no colour.

"I saw them killing my friends and