In Tel Aviv, a virtual reality headset shows the horror of October 7 to raise awareness of the fate of the hostages

The niece of a former hostage has created a virtual reality experience in Tel Aviv to raise awareness of the plight of those captured by the Islamist group.

On October 7, Schlomi Zvid was providing security at the Nova techno festival when Hamas commandos attacked. He was taken hostage and spent seven months in Gaza before being released. His niece, Liat Ariel, sought to raise awareness by creating a virtual reality experience.

His goal: that time does not make us forget the fate of the hostages in Gaza, hanging on a constantly postponed agreement between Hamas and Israel. “The idea is to create empathy and this feeling that something is going to happen to you. You don’t know what, but you guess it’s going to be very bad.”she explains to franceinfo.

With headphones on the ears, a virtual reality headset and a jacket to send vibrations simulating the shocks, blows and impact of the bombings, the user is warned of the violence of the experience. The film begins to the sound of techno, and the monstrous scenario unfolds, fueled by the testimonies of the survivors. We are thrown into the trunk of a car hearing gunfire and then we stagger into the tunnels of Gaza.

The film lasts 8 minutes. The audience watches it under the tents set up in the Tel Aviv square where the families of the hostages are permanently gathered, under a blazing sun. “You think that if you’ve been here for eight minutes and you’re already hot, you’re sweating under this tent, says Liat Ariel.

“What must it be like when it’s been going on for over 300 days already. What is it like for them?”

Liat Ariel, niece of former hostage Schlomi Zvid

to franceinfo

In the darkness of a jail, female spectators hear a rape. Then it’s the unbearable closed-door scene with a jailer, the bombs falling, the walls shaking, the terror. “After seeing it, you understand that we have to reach an agreement even if it requires sacrifices for Israel, even if it means freeing a terrorist, insists Liat Ariel. Things that are hard for Israel to admit. But it helps people understand that we have to reach an agreement at all costs, even if it means ending the war. Because after you have had this experience, you actually understand that there is no more time to lose.”

Liat Ariel proposed to members of the Knesset to try the experiment, to get them to push for an agreement. And so that the hostages would not be sacrificed in the name of the interests of the nation.