Bodies, all places. Every one of us knows somebody who has been killed, taken in captivity. He was saying mommy, we are trying to get out of here, but im bleeding, we were shot. Everyone who was shot. And she said mommy, im afraid i will die. This is the Worst Nightmare for every mother in the world. We are in hell right now. That is where we. Are we want to live without the fear of terrorist crossing our border. Every hour there is news of people being bombed in their homes and dying. People sat on top of us. There are lots of children, very young children, whose bodies were laid on the floor. We were expecting death at any moment. Were expecting that the whole gaza strip will be erased at any minute. So im like, show evacuate now . Or should i just wait for my death in my own house . Its a huge big cage that we are trapped inside and there is nowhere else to go. Good evening once again. Im stephanie ruhle. It has now been 14 days since the horrific act of terror by hamas, a war that has started all kinds of discussions about geopolitics and borders, but more than anything, this war is about people, civilians, human lives, and so many families are forever changed. So this our gonna focus on the human toll of all of this. The rescue efforts, the survivors, those who stories are at the center of this war. That includes a story of freedom. Freedom for two women who are captured during the Terror Attacks, two women we spoke to right here last night or, just hours ago and those women were the first hostages released. American israelis, Judith Raanan and her 17yearold daughter natalie, they were in israel visiting now leads grandmother for her 85th birthday when they were kidnapped by Hamas On October 7th. Natalies father, very emotionally reacted to the release earlier this evening. I have been waiting for this moment for a long time. For two weeks. I havent been sleeping for two weeks. Tonight i am going to sleep good. I spoke with my daughter earlier today, and she sounds very good, she looks very good. She was very happy. And she is waiting to come home. Im going to hug her and kiss her and its going to be the best day of my life. Mother and daughter are now in the care of the israeli military. President biden spoke to them on the phone earlier tonight, and the u. S. Embassy in jerusalem posted this photo of judith and natalie on that call. The story hits home for all of us, especially here at nbc, because last night we found out there are also Family Members of longtime former nbc Foreign Correspondent martin fletcher. Hes heres what he told us 24 hours ago. I just found out today the two of my wifes family are among the hostages. I am so sorry. So this is a very personal. , a very personal thing. And by the way they are americans. Natalie, im sorry for bringing this on you, natalie and Judith Raanan, different evanston, illinois. Filled with relief, gratitude, and some joy, earlier tonight martin talked about their release with my colleague tom giannis. The family is celebrating obviously because they fear there would be physical damage. But ive got to say one thing, family celebrating. I know this sounds incredible. Theres another Family Member whos also in gaza, to. One Family Member was buried today, killed in the same attack, and another one is still a hostage. All the same family . All the same family. And this is the story of the families in that part of southern israel. Because it was a certain group, kind of people who went to live there in the first place. The story of natalie and judith is just one of so many were going to highlight tonight. That includes death of 28yearold natalie , unamerican who was at the Music Festival when terrorists took over and killed 260 people. She escaped with her life. Here is what she saw, when she heard, and what she went through two long weeks ago. Natalie, we are so grateful that you are sharing your story. It has been almost two weeks. How are you doing . Its honestly shocking to hear you say that. And same time it feels like its been a day and also feels like its been months. Time, honestly, blurs so much after youve been through Something Like this in each day steering situation seeing the situation get worse but also get better in some cases, there have been cases of people that they thought were dead the turns out they are still alive, which gives us some hope. How am i doing . Im happy to be alive. But im praying every day for all the hostages. You are the portrait of hope for so many families of hostages, praying that their daughters, their sisters, their nieces, could be freed like you. What happened to that day . I went to this festival with a few friends. I was actually resting in our campsite when the rockets first started coming. A lot of the kids that were dancing at that time, they thought that the boom was part of the music, or that it was fireworks or something to do with the festival. I was woken up by a friend who came to alert me of what was happening, the rockets were sent our way. The way she reacted to what was happening, as an israeli citizen, i was one of the only americans in my group it was there. She came up to me to tell, me a few rockets were sent our way, but its fine. This is something normal for the area that we are in. Not for a girl from long island. Definitely not for me. But for israeli kids it was really citizens, it was a reality for them. Its something they were used. Two theyve grown up hiding in bomb shelters. What happened . They said oh dont worry, and then what happened . We kind of just stood there. I stood there in shock and we waited to see if it would stop and as time went on one rocket after the other just sent our way. The Festival Security had shut off the music and asked everyone to please evacuate to their cars. We all went to our cameras and it is point we had no idea the terrorists where they are on foot with guns. I had asked my friends if i could go use the bathroom before we head to the car, before we leave. I figured will be a few hours until we get out. As you can imagine, its thousands of kids trying to get out of this festival on the same dirt road. There would be traffic. And when to use the bathroom before we left. And a few days ago i saw a Video Surface of the terrorists coming to those exact bathroom stalls, just shooting at all of, them trying to kill anyone who is inside. Since the festival happened, of all the videos that i have seen that surface, this was one of the ones that hit me the hardest. Knowing that i was there moments before, and that if i was there moments later, that i might not be here today. What happened next . We went to those restrooms, and then you didnt get to the car. We do get into the care. The Festival Security asked everyone to go down The Dirt Road. I like to point out that they did their best to get everyone out safely, and most of them die doing their job. We started driving, and eventually the security asked us to pull over to the side of The Dirt Road and get out of our cars and iran. We couldnt understand why they would ask us to do such a thing. You hadnt seen anyone on the ground. You hadnt seen any guns . Not yet. At this point we only heard the rockets. As soon as we pulled our car over to the side of the road, thats when we heard the first gunshots. And as soon as we heard the first gunshots, we just opened our doors and started running. Kids were running in every direction. Nobody knew what direction was the direction to safety. They really was no direction to safety. One of the most terrifying things was running in a specific direction, thinking that youre running to safety, and then seeing dozens of other kids running in your direction, and realizing that theyre running from terrorists, theyre running from gunshots. And having to make a Split Second Decision on where to go next, and every decision you made was a decision that either save your life or got you killed. Are you spending a lot of time thinking about that . If you turn right, not last . And future looked forward not backwards . There was one specific decision that we made. We passed by a ditch, filled with a number of other kids, and they told us to get in this ditch with them and hide from the terrorists. We almost did. Until one of my friends said, no, this is a bad idea. If we hide in this ditch and they come from above us, we have Nowhere To Run. We are done for. Because of him, we kept running, and we later found out that the kids who stayed and hit in the ditch were shot and killed. Its just so hard to think about the fact that every little decision we made it up saving our lives. But it couldve turned out so differently. Have you slapped since then . Its hard because you feel the certain mount of guilt as well. Even though you got out and you were, quote unquote, safe now. You feel a certain amount of guilt. Why me . Why not them . Indefinitely keeps you up at night. How long were you running for . We ran for about four hours. Straight . On and off. When we didnt hear gunshots for a few minutes we would catch our breath. Try to imagine, we are running in the sun. We have no water. Are you around . Or not at all. A lot of, some of the Festival Goers ended up staying in their cars, and a lot of them were picking up girls that were still running, and a you had offered me a ride, but i stayed with my group. I felt more safe being with people that i knew personally. I just kept running with them and trying to keep up with them. What were you wearing . Were you dressed, im just trying to picture this . Not at all, i was dressed for a festival. I was dress to dance. I was not dressed for this at all. And for four straight hours, youre running . And then what happened . Eventually along the way we ran into a police officer. He gave us directions. He told us run in the direction of the sun, because in that direction there was a town, the town of pettycash, that was the closest town to get to safety. We kept running in that direction, and in about four hours we passed by a small tree and we decided to sit down under the tree and catch our breath for a moment. What conversation did you have one another during that time . We were all just sitting and looking at each other at this point. We dont know if to give up hope or to keep going. While we were sitting under that tree, a big white Pick Up Truck started driving in our direction. Our automatic reaction was this is terrorists coming to kill us. And i just remember looking around of the kids sitting next to me, and we are kind of have got up for a second and thought to run for our lives, and then we all looked at each other and kind of realized, if this is a terrorist, thats it, we have Nowhere To Run to. Where are we gonna go . And we kind of just all sat down and accepted our faith, that this is a terrorist, then this is the end. Thankfully, lucky for us, it wasnt a terrorist. It was a man from the town who had left the safety of his town and driven towards all of this to save innocent lives. A white. Of a white governor white Pick Up Truck. I dont even know his name. I never even got to thank him. We all hopped in the back of his truck. He drove us to his town, and as soon as we got out, he turned right around and risked his life all over again to save more lives. How long before you are able to get home, to talk to your family . It was a few hours that we were in that town. While were in that town they had us go to the bomb shelter. There were people from that town reading off lists of names that they were receiving from parents who knew that their kids were at this festival, kids that werent answering, kids that might have been killed already or kidnapped. And they were just reading of lists of names in the hope that one of their kids was there in the bomb shelter. When you are coming home to the u. S. , im sure you could not wait to see your family. But did part of you want to stay . I mean, such a traumatic experience that probably also held you there in some way. Theres a big amount of guilt that comes along with leaving israel at a time like that. I remember someone told me they had a conversation with a travel agent, and they told her, you must be so busy, booking flights out of israel. And she said yeah, i am, but even more busy booking flights into israel. That just shows how resilient our country is and how much they come together when we need each other. I have friends who survived this festival who escaped death, who have no realistic in the army to protect their country. Being here, a lot of people asked me if i feel safer now that im here, now that im back in new york. I cant say that i necessarily feel safer. With all the protests i see happening, not just in the u. S. But in europe as well, i think most jews would say they dont feel very safe right now. Are you shocked by the protests . Yes. I am shocked by the misinformation. I am shocked at the fact that people think that this is an issue of israel versus palestine. This isnt an issue of israel versus palestine. This is an issue of israel versus hamas, a Terrorist Organization, who is just as complicit in the death of innocent palestinians as it is in the death of innocent israelis. Once people realize that we have the same enemy, that this is a Terrorist Organization and we come together, we have a higher chance of defeating them. Before you are here in new york, where you are in Washington Meadows government officials, you met with several gentlemen. What is your message to lawmakers . What do you want them to do . My message to lawmakers is that israel needs their backing right now. They need their support. They need americas help in defending themselves. The fact that we are fighting a Terrorist Organization right now, its on israels soil, but it can just as easily be on Americas Soil tomorrow. Thats what people need to understand. Thank you so much for sharing your story, for being here with us. We are blessed that youre alive. Thank you. For having me. Thank you. Natalie is blessed to be home safe. My next guest is still in the region every day trying to save lives. He is Chief Of Staff of the National Paramedic service in israel. You and i spoke just a few days after the first attacks. October 9th, when many people were looking at that Music Festival attacking comparing it to september 11th. You said it was nothing like 9 11 because it was like the attacks were happening and happening. Your own paramedics were being shot at. People were trying to steal their ambulances. What has it been like since then . It is two weeks now. Well, since then we are fully prepared for anything to come. We still, we keep learning about how our people behave like heroes that day and we just heard about Making Decisions and a split second people were decided to go and risk themselves in order to help others. And at the same time, we look at the northern border, and hezbollah, trying to drag israel to war, to more violence, risking of innocent civilians. And for those people to protect their lives. So its very tense in israel. And this uncertainty of the last couple of weeks is something that puts a lot of israelis under attention, both in terms of security, both in terms of emotionally, on clearance and this is what we have to deal with right now. What has it been like for you and the other rescue teams . We know, on the other side, we know in gaza city, even before the explosion in the hospital there were not enough hospital beds. Not enough doctors. What is it like in israel . How has your work been . What we are doing this time, we prepare our equipment. We understand that a full scale war will require a lot more medical equipment, many more ambulances. I spoke about the uncertainty of the list. This is the time to be prepared. To go over all the operational parts. To enhance the coordination. With the army, with the police, with the fire department. But at the end of the day, we all hope that this will end very soon. But if not, again, we have to make sure that we are prepared. We cannot go back to october 7th, we are so many people didnt know what is happening, didnt know what is happening with their relatives, we are besieged and not able to receive this so important medical help they need. And we are preparing. While hoping that everything will and very soon. Uri, thank you for everything youre doing, and thank you for being here tonight. Thank you so much. We really hope that things will go back to normal life. Nevertheless, were there for people, if needed we will be there for them. Thank you so much. The hamas attacks devastated so many close knit Thriving Communities along the israel gaza border. The families who survived and will now never forget the hours of unimaginable violence carried out in places that they called home. My colleague kelly spoke to families in the beeri kibbutz about what they witnessed. Anthony family hit four hours in their safe room, reading about the horrors on their phones. Leaving the father of three considering the unthinkable. And one point i thought i was gonna have to kill my kids. She and her teenage daughters came face to face with the terrorists. And we just said to them, please dont kill us. Please, we didnt do nothing. Dont kill us. They spared her and her daughters, but took her husband and daughters boyfriend. So much sadness. Too much, but nobodys crying. Its no contact between my heart and my mind. Kelly joins us now. Kelly, first, i want to start by thanking you. I think about how hard it is sitting here in the safety of new york covering this tragedy and it is hard on us. You are there, and you have seen firsthand these faces of war, the children, the families, people whose lives have been torn apart and turned around for the last 13 days. Tell us what it has been like . It has been hard. You have to have a very cold heart to not feel for these people that you meet every single day. I just remember the very first family or one of the first families that we met, the parents of two sisters both in their twenties, and when we met them, t