It's been one month since Ayelet Svatitzky, 46, buried both her brothers.
Before finally laying her eldest brother to rest, the mother-of-three had to temporarily bury Roi Popplewell, 53, near her kibbutz, located around a two-hour drive north of Gaza, because it wasn't safe where he lived at the time.
Eight months later she recovered the body of her younger brother, Nadav Popplewell.
The 51-year-old was kidnapped alongside their mother on October 7 when Hamas went on a murderous rampage in southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages.
Nadav Popplewell was kidnapped alongside their mother on October 7
PA
Channah Peri, who recently turned 80, was released from Gaza in November during a temporary ceasefire deal. Her son Nadav was murdered in captivity eight months later.
Ayelet's siblings are finally buried together close to their homes in Kibbutz Nirim, near the Israeli border. But with three teenagers and a mother to care for, she has no time to grieve.
"We're a really small family so I make sure that we all see therapists. I'm making sure that my teenagers have routine and daily order and know that we're there for each other and particularly my mum, who really needs our love and support," the 46-year-old told GB News.
Ayelet is helping move her mother north so she can be close to what little family she has left, adding: "She is never moving back to the south."
The British-Israeli gave another reason for not having the time to grieve: "I'm trying not to deal with my personal trauma and loss at the moment because I'm still trying to be productive and effective with the release of of the rest of the hostages, which is my main priority at the moment."
At the time of the interview, Ayelet was speaking at a press conference for British family members of hostages in Gaza.
It was to mark the first anniversary of October 7 and demand the unconditional release of the 101 Israelis still held hostage in the war-torn enclave.
Earlier that day, Sir Keir Starmer privately met with Ayelet and the other families. The Prime Minister was joined by Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Foreign Office officials and other key brokers in the hostage negotiations.
There's a narrow focus on diplomacy when lives are at stake. Ayelet, however, does not mince her words when describing Hamas.
"They're a terrorist organisation. They've proved their cruelty. They've broadcasted it to the world," she told GB News.
Her blood boils when Western media outlets and politicians dance around this definition as Hamas has explicitly stated its genocidal intentions.
Ayelet reminds your correspondent of an interview with Ghazi Hamad, the terror group's spokesperson, which took place weeks after the worst massacre in Israel's history.
“Israel is a country that has no place on our land," he told Lebanese news outlet LBCI at the time, adding: "We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again."
For Ayelet, October 7 was not some distant geopolitical event but a visceral act of terror.
When she woke up on that Shabbat morning, the 46-year-old was surprised to hear her husband speaking on the phone.
“There’s something happening,” he told her. “You need to call your mum now.”
When Ayelet picked up her phone she was inundated with messages on her Whatsapp group with childhood friends still living on Kibbutz Nirim, which is close to Israel's border fence with Gaza.
The mother-of-three immediately called her mother to warn her that terrorists had infiltrated Israel.
When her mother answered she heard a man's voice in the background.
She hung up and called her brother Nadav, whose house is near their mother’s home, to alert him.
As she instructed him to lock his doors and hide, she heard the same voices in the background, and the call disconnected.
Ayelet then received two photos from her mother’s phone, showing the 79-year-old standing alongside Nadav in her living room in her nightwear.
One word accompanied the pictures: “Hamas."
Hours later, a third picture was posted on her mother's Facebook showing them with a Hamas terrorist standing in the corner with a Kalashnikov.
"They were proud of what they were doing. They were showing it to everyone," she said.
The 46-year-old initially went into "autopilot" when she saw the pictures. She said: "I was like, 'okay, I got the pictures. I don't know what they mean yet. I have to call people. I have to let them know. I have to see if the Army can get to them.' I was on operating mode at that moment. I didn't stop to think of what it meant. I didn't have any answers. I was just dealing with the facts."
LATEST WORLD NEWS DEVELOPMENTS
Roi Popplewell, 53, was shot and killed behind his Kibbutz Nirim home.
Ayelet Svatitzky via Facebook
Then her mind started racing: "I didn't even know at the time if they were dead or alive. I didn't know if five minutes after the picture was taken, they were shot dead. I had to wait for hours until the Army got to the house and told us no one was there."
While desperately waiting for an update about her mother and Nadav, Ayelet received devastating news: the IDF had recovered her older brother's body. Roi was shot and killed behind his Kibbutz Nirim home on October 7.
Channah was released one month later as part of a temporary ceasefire deal brokered by Qatar and the United States between Hamas and Israel.
Ayelet was finally reunited with her mother but it would be another four months before she would receive an update about her brother Nadav, who was still being held captive in Gaza.
She recalls the "torture" of not knowing what was happening to her brother. She pictured him trapped in the tunnels beneath Gaza.
"I can't wrap my head around it. It's just inhumane," she told GB News.
Then in May, Ayelet and her family finally got an update. Hamas released a video of a visibly bruised Nadav. He stated his name and age.
A month later he was confirmed dead following an Israeli operation in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
Ayelet knows she cannot bring her brothers back but she is campaigning tirelessly for the release of the remaining hostages and for their loved ones to be rehabilitated.
She prays for a long-term solution in Gaza because "both sides deserve to live in peace and safety". However, she fears that this day will not come until Hamas is destroyed.
"I want my friends and families to be able to go back and live in the south safely. I don't want to worry that in a year or two something like this can happen to them again. As long as the terrorist organisation is ruling across the border, then my friends and their families will not be safe there," she said.
Before we wrapped up our interview, Ayelet had a sobering message for those in the West who view Hamas as a distant and irrelevant threat.
"Hamas is an Islamic extremist group. The UK have had their fair share of terrorist attacks, such as the July 7 bombings and the Manchester Arena bombing. But I fear the UK does not know what it's up against. If people don't wake up and see reality as it is, it'll happen again because this war is not just against Israel and the Jews. There's an agenda here. And once they're done with us, god forbid, they'll move on. Who will be next?"
Additional reporting by Nicholas Dunning
