Noam Tibon's daring October 7 rescue: Amir Tibon recounts survival story | On The Record
Tibon called for an inquiry into the October 7 massacre 'in order to learn and improve and make sure that something like this never happens again'
Amir Tibon and his family live in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. On October 7, they were trapped by fighting until Amir's father, Noam, fought his way to their house and rescued them.
On October 7, Tibon, his wife Miri, and their two daughters rushed to the safe room in their house after sirens blared at 6:29 a.m.
As they hid silently in the dark safe room, they heard terrorists running from house to house firing guns and killing their neighbors.
They attempted to break down the door and enter the room, but were unable to. Tibon and his family heard them firing AK-47s in the living room.
It wasn't until the afternoon that soldiers arrived to retake the kibbutz from Hamas terrorists. At 4 p.m., Noam entered the house and helped the family escape.
Noam Tibon is a retired IDF general who left the army more than a decade before October 7, while Amir's mother is a high school teacher and Holocaust historian.
Once they understood what was happening, Amir's parents left Tel Aviv at 7:30 a.m. set off on an odyssey to rescue their family.
Amir recounts how they passed through multiple checkpoints, firefights, and even rescued more people on the way.
For Amir, the story exemplifies Israelis: "Israelis, when they have a mission, when they have a goal that they're trying to reach, they will move mountains in order to achieve it."
He linked his story to the recent failed hijacking of Flydubai Flight 1073, saying, "That is a huge failure, just a massive story of dysfunction on behalf of the government because the government had all the information."
He pointed to Israeli citizens' braveness in confronting the co-pilot as having been necessary only because of government failure.
Tibon called for an inquiry into the October 7 massacre, saying, "I think an integral part of remembering what happened and keeping that memory alive is also understanding the facts, what happened. And for that, you need a state commission of inquiry, something that has not been established."
He said that he hoped that the next government after the elections at the end of the month will commission a full inquiry into October 7, "in order to learn and improve and make sure that something like this never happens again."