HUDSON – On October 7 last autumn, Matan Boltax was attending a music festival not far from Gaza with some friends and was in good spirits, taking selfies together, until too many rockets being fired ended a planned a day of happiness and fun.
“We knew the festival was over, and the music wasn’t going to go back on,” said the 23-year-old Boltax, speaking to crowd at the Wick Hotel in the City of Hudson Sunday. “And everybody was bummed.”
Boltax was born on Long Island and moved to Israel as a nine-year-old. He later served in the Israeli Defense Forces, but on this fateful day more than four months ago, he and his friends left the music festival, encountered chaos and abandoned cars as Hamas terrorists struck targets and killed about 1,200 Israelis throughout the day.
After picking up some others, coping with the shock of the day, they found safety in shelters until Boltax found a friend in a town and sheltered at his family’s residence.
Because of the non-stop rocket fire, “One of the people, we picked up, he was kind of tripping out,” he said. “And every time we entered a bomb shelter, which was about every five minutes, he thought I was a terrorist, and we had to calm him down every time. It was just very claustrophobic and very intense.”
Boltax eventually, with the others, left the shelter, and he managed to get home to his family safely by 8 p.m. that evening.
“No one really knew what was going on,” he said. “Not even the news knew what to report.”
Following that day, he learned of others he knew who survived the slaughter of a grenade attack on a shelter, fought valiantly against the terrorists and or were taken hostage.
Within days, Boltax reported for reserve duty to help defend Israel. And he has been speaking about his experiences while Israel has stayed unified since October 7, 2023 in the ongoing conflict with Hamas.
