The eerie, empty bedrooms of Israelis held hostage in Gaza are frozen in time

Bullet holes in a wall next to a baby bottle. A mattress burned by a grenade. Blood stains on the floor, or soot marks on the tiles next to a toothbrush.

The bedrooms of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7 remain frozen in time. Nine months into their captivity in Gaza, some hostages’ beds are still unmade and their belongings — trophies, stuffed animals, framed photos — remain untouched at the behest of shell-shocked families, a testimony to their absence.

Hamas militants killed roughly 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7, and kidnapped around 250 — many taken from their bedrooms. Since then, the Israeli army has killed over 38,000 Palestinians while fighting Hamas in Gaza, according to local health officials who do not distinguish between civilians and militants in their count.

Around 120 hostages remain in Gaza, though Israel believes at least 40 of them are dead. Israel has rescued seven hostages and 105 were released during a November cease-fire.

For many of those kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz, their bedrooms or entire homes were destroyed. All that remains of the charred bedroom of David Cunio and Sharon Alony Cunio are the curled springs of their mattress, lying in a pile of soot.

“This was a place of joy until Oct. 7, of joy, of the gift of togetherness, of giving, of love. Now, it’s not just a war zone, but a place of massacre,” said Jonathan Dekel-Chen, as he leaned against the door frame of the destroyed bedroom of his son, Sagui.

Dekel-Chen wonders how his family — now living with other members of Kibbutz Nir Oz in temporary housing an hour away — will ever regain their sense of security. Sagui’s wife, Avital, was seven months pregnant on Oct. 7 and survived the attack with her two daughters by hiding for hours in the family’s safe room. She gave birth to a third daughter during Sagui’s captivity.

Plastic sheeting covers all of the furniture in the home of Or and Einav Levy, in a suburb of Tel Aviv. The couple arrived at the Tribe of Nova music festival just minutes before the attack began in the early morning of Oct. 7. Or was kidnapped and Einav was killed, and their three-year-old son, Almog, now lives with his grandparents. Their apartment is closed off, dark and stifling in the summer air, layers of plastic trying to protect from the passage of time.

The family of Naama Levy, 20, a soldier kidnapped from an army base near Gaza, has kept most everything intact. But they’ve also filled the room with photo collages and presents that people have made for Naama when she returns.

Amit Levy, Naama’s 21-year-old brother, said he sometimes sleeps in his sister’s room when he’s feeling especially low. “It helps me feel her, to be in her room and her pictures around me, I’m not sad because I’m always thinking that she’ll come home soon.”

In the bedroom of Omer Shem-Tov, 21, who was kidnapped with some 40 others from a music festival, the light never goes off. His mother, Shelly Shem-Tov, put a piece of tape over the light switch on Oct. 8 with instructions that nobody should touch or clean up the room until he comes home and does it himself.

Omer’s room is strewn with mementos, including a Torah scroll, that have been blessed by rabbis and modern-day mystics.

“I get strength from that room,” said Shem-Tov, who is active in pressuring the Israeli government to bring her son — and all of the hostages — home.

“This bedroom has energy,” said Shem-Tov, who prays in it every morning and evening and has long talks with her other children as they lay sprawled on Omer’s bed. “I feel that he can feel me when I’m in there.”