An Israeli high school basketball team torn apart by the Hamas terrorist attack reunites for a nerve-wracking game in New York.

World News

From Steven Vago And Priscilla DeGregory

A group of young Israeli basketball players – whose hometowns were devastated by the October 7 Hamas attack – came together for the first time to play basketball against local teams in New York.

A group of 19 former members of the HaPoel Eshkol high school team were reunited in the Empire State last week after being separated as a result of the unimaginable terrorist attack on their hometowns, according to the nonprofit Project 24, which organized the trip.

“Every single one of us was evacuated from a different location,” Eshkol team captain Guy Moses Auerbach, 19, told dozens of spectators before kickoff of a game between his team and Ramaz School, a Jewish high school on the Upper East Side, on Thursday.

“The whole team split up. We haven’t played at all this season.”

The nerve-wracking game ended in a 45-45 draw as students and others watched from the packed stands.

The players from the Eshkol region come from some of the kibbutzim – small, agricultural communities such as Be-eri and Nir Oz – that were hit hardest by the terror group last year, which killed 1,200 people in a massacre and captured another 250.

The young men lost family members and a trainer in the brutal attack, and many of their homes were destroyed. The terrorist group also took some of their relatives hostage.

Most players are currently living in shelters and hotels across the country, Project 24 said.

One of the players, Noam Or, was even held hostage for 50 days and learned shortly after his release that his mother had been murdered.

Or he recently learned that his father, who was also taken hostage, was killed – which made the trip all the more meaningful for him, Project 24 said.

Gadi Moses, the grandfather of Moses Auerbach, is still in captivity, the teenager told the Washington Post. His grandmother was killed and his grandfather’s second wife was captured and later released.

“We all come from the same district,” Auerbach explained about his former team. “We all know people and have lost people.”

Moses Auerbach said he and his family always try to stay positive, “but it’s really hard.”

“Basketball is my lifestyle,” the center power forward explained. “It’s where I go when I want to switch off from the world and hang out with friends and stuff like that.”

“It’s really fun to get the whole team together and play basketball again.”

Project 24 sponsored the team’s ten-day trip, which began in Port Washington on May 15 and ended in Manhattan on May 24.

During the trip, they played seven games and scrimmages against local public schools, Jewish schools and at Jewish community centers.

The group of players and four coaches also watched the Knicks playoff game, a Yankees game, a WNBA game between the New York Liberty and Chicago Sky, and “The Lion King” on Broadway, the nonprofit organization said.

Twenty-year-old Nahar Lev-Aptalon, who scored over a dozen points in Thursday’s game and now plays professionally in Israel, said his parents’ house was burned down by Hamas while they were inside.

As if by a miracle, they survived.

“I woke up at 7:30 a.m. just because my father called me,” Lev-Aptalon said of October 7. “I didn’t wake up because of the bombs because I sleep very deeply. He just told me that there are terrorists everywhere in the kibbutz. I should close the security room and keep calm.”

He recalled hiding alone in the shelter until the IDF picked him up around 9 p.m. that same evening.

“That was really the difficult part,” he said.

The 20-year-old said basketball helped him heal.

“In basketball, you really have to focus on the game,” he said. “You can’t think too much about other things while you’re playing, so I think it’s a good way to clear your head. Of course, you feel better after you play,” Lev-Aptalon said.

Another player, Roy Beinart, said he stayed in his settlement of Sde Nitzan – but his family refuses to return.

“Right now, I’m a 16-year-old living at home alone, two hours away from his family,” Beinart told the Post.

He said being separated from his teammates was hard for him, but continuing to play basketball helped him cope with his problems.

“When you come to terms with the fact that you’re not going to see a lot of people anymore, or even not see them for a while, it’s hard to comprehend,” Beinart said.

“For me, it’s much easier with a ball,” he said. “A little bit of movement gets you going.”

Project 24 founder Daniel Gradus said his organization tries to instill optimism in the young men.

“They need something different, they need healing, they need a hug,” Gradus said.

“The best thing for such children is to use up all their energy and aggression and let it out on the court with friends,” he said. “Basketball clears their minds.”

The invasion of the Jewish state last year sparked a war that enters its eighth month next week.