Our Romeo & Juliet – the tragic yet miraculous love story of Noa and Avinatan

Unfolding before our very eyes is a modern day tragic love story of Shakespearean proportion, our Israeli Romeo and Juliet. In scene 1 act 1, Noa and Avinatan enter the stage as our star-crossed lovers, their lives shattered just moments before we meet them. Instead of fair Verona, it’s Nova, where Noa and Avinatan had been camping out, listening to music, dancing and enjoying time with friends. Suddenly, masked, genocidal terrorists parachute in, murdering the young partygoers with glee, and kidnapping our unlucky protagonists to hold for ransom. Stage right, Noa’s beautiful face appears on all of our screens, but her chestnut, doe eyes and perfect plush smile are distorted, as she screams in agony from the back of the terrorists’ motorbike, begging them not to kill her. They are hauling her away–her long, black hair blowing in the wind, her eyes beseeching–and this vision of her is forever seared into the collective memory. She is Edward Munch’s The Scream, whereas just moments before we met her she was a Modigliani muse. At the same time, four or five madmen surround Avinatan, grabbing his arms, taking him away. Noa and Avinatan are separated. 

These tragic lovers, filled with hope and promise, plucked from their beautiful lives as if by the hands of Hades himself, are thrown into the depths of hell. For 246 days, Hamas holds Noa captive in Gazan apartment buildings with the other women and children they stole, and Noa has no idea what happened to Avinatan. Was he dead or alive? Did he miraculously escape? Does she even know about the tunnels? And her mother–her poor mother–has terminal brain cancer! Noa, an only child, does not know if she will ever get to see her mother again; even if she survives this horror, her mom might not. For 246 days she wonders, dreams and prays for the woman who brought her into this world and the man she loves. 

Avinatan was held for 738 days in solitary confinement in the rat- and worm-infested tunnels beneath Gaza. There wasn’t a soul around him to ask about her. Each of them trying to survive in their parallel silos, their own individual corners of hell, they imagined the other. What fate had befallen her? And what of him? “Noa, Noa, wherefore art thou Noa?!” During the endless moments of torture, starvation, and filth, did he picture Noa above ground or buried beneath it, did he see visions of her with blood running down her legs, flesh hanging off her bones, her soul black and empty from it all? Or did he survive by dreaming of her freedom, her escape. Maybe she was living in Tel Aviv, back in her light-filled apartment, drinking coffee and studying for her spring exams? Maybe she was setting the Shabbat dinner table, saying the blessing over the candles with her mom. Maybe she was healthy and safe and fighting for him from the outside. 

After a year spent like a rat in a sewer, Avinatan attempted his escape, but sadly, he was unsuccessful. As punishment, the terrorists handcuffed him to a cage for an entire year. He lived handcuffed inside a cage for an entire year! Was it rage that kept Avinatan’s spirit alive when his body was on the brink of death or was it the hope against all hopes that his love was alive and that he would be with her again one day?  

And what visions propelled Noa’s spirit? Was it the dream of seeing her mom and marrying Avinatan one day, starting a family together, and going back to their former lives, their former selves? How full of optimism she must have been when the likelier scenario was bloody and gruesome. The thought of surviving an unspeakable hell and going back to daily life without the other must have been excruciating, but unlike our Romeo and Juliet, they didn’t fall upon their swords. No happy dagger granted them an escape from this world. They chose to fight for their lives, committing to a future that would surely be better than their present. The agony of the unknown quelled by hope and purpose and the sanctity of life, a supreme Jewish value.

But let us rewind to imagine this tragic pair before the unthinkable nightmare struck. Where does their love story begin? In my screenplay, they meet as schoolchildren. They live in the same neighborhood and run to the school bus together each morning, their backpacks bobbing against their little bodies. They sit under olive trees on lazy afternoons, doing their homework and playing cards. They are great friends, but as they grow up, they realize there is something deeper. They fall in love in high school, and it’s easy because they have all the same friends, they spend so much of their time together already, and they realize that they have always loved each other. Their souls were intertwined before they even came into this life; it was written in the stars, beshert.

Or maybe they grew up in different places, but they meet one summer on a crowded beach in Tel Aviv. It’s one of those perfect cloudless days, and the beaches are lined with people. She sets her towel down near his. He’s swimming in the sea, but when he returns he sees her lying there, holding a novel in one hand, a cigarette in the other, and he overhears her discussing with her friends the greatest songs of all time. At the moment she says “Mr Tambourine Man” he’s saying it too, a little louder than he had intended, and the girls hear him. Noa and Avinatan look at each other, and it’s electric. They talk for hours and hours until the sun disappears and the stars light the sky.  

But the truth is they met in college, a classic love story. She was in her first year at Ben Gurion University, and he was in his fifth, both studying engineering. They first laid eyes upon each other at a university Purim party and spent two years together before October 7, but we know little more about their relationship before the war. I imagine that they were typical Israeli college kids–aware of the dangers of living amongst unsavory neighbors, but still carefree and bright-eyed like only college kids can be. After serving in the IDF, they work hard and play hard, delving into their studies, dreaming big about their futures (maybe they will start a tech company one day), but also enjoying life–spending time with friends, going to parties, concerts and exploring the world.

But were they smitten with love at first sight like Romeo and Juliet, or did their romance develop over time, after hours spent talking into the wee hours of the night over bottles of wine? Did she find him arrogant at first, like Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, and then grow to understand that she was utterly wrong and that he was the most beautiful person she had ever met? Whether it was a blazing fire from the moment they met or a spark that grew slowly, they were the lucky ones. What they found in each other is what we all yearn for; it’s what unites us all besides the air we breathe and the blood that runs through our veins. And somehow it illuminates the meaning of why we are here on this earth.

And then, fast forward. These once starry-eyed, lucky lovers are torn away from each other, lying in the dungeons of hell, rotting from starvation, begging for the torture to stop. Oh Fortune’s fools! But finally, after 246 neverending days that feel like years, one morning the IDF initiates an audacious operation deep inside Gaza, rescuing Noa and three other hostages. Noa and the other hostages arrive to cheering crowds, hollering and weeping, incredulous at the sight of what they thought were ghosts before them. I imagine the first words she speaks are “Is my mom alive?! Is Avinatan alive?!” as she falls to the ground, kissing the Israeli soil in elation and hope, but also in fear of the truth. She is home, but he is not. He still languishes with the worms in hell. But maybe he is alive. And surely that ignites her when the heavy blanket of exhaustion tries to suffocate her. Noa’s mom, as it turns out, lived just long enough to see her one last time. She was waiting for her daughter’s return and then died three weeks later. 

Noa campaigns relentlessly, tirelessly, speaking before the UN Security Council, President Trump and countless other leaders. “Until Avinatan comes back, my heart is in captivity,” she proclaims. She pleads and waits, having to live with the knowledge of just how bad it is for him down in hell. The guilt of her freedom rises like heat in her, but she suppresses it. Or at least she tries.  

Finally, a year and four months later, the wait is finally over. Political forces align, and powerful men strike a deal to release all of the living hostages. Avinatan is among them. He and Noa have not seen each other for two entire years since the moment they were stolen from their lives. We watch, transfixed, as he enters stage left, where Noa is waiting for him. They are falling, literally falling, into each other’s arms, their limbs entwined like oak branches, salt water sliding down their cheeks and necks. In a sea of tears and kisses, they hold each other, and he screams a guttural, primal scream. It’s the scream of someone who has seen things that no one should see and who didn’t know if he could ever come back to this place. He holds her face close, he can’t believe it’s really her, they are together, and they are free. He looks into her eyes. Their souls were always connected, but now finally, their bodies are too. 

Watching in real time as our lovers reunite, we are witnessing a modern miracle, no less miraculous than Maccabes’ oil lasting for eight days or Queen Esther saving the Jews of Shushan. Noa and Avinatan were all but dead, but they returned from the precipice. To Israel, to their sleepless, heartbroken families and to each other. Unlike Shakespeare’s tragedy, a happy twist of fortune delivers the final scene we were all holding our breadth for, the one we didn’t think was possible in this tale of woe. Our beautiful young lovers avoided Romeo and Juliet’s cursed fate, but still the tragedy is not over for them, and it may never be. They are no longer the same people they were on October 6, before they were robbed of their youth and innocence. There may always be a darkness in their eyes that wasn’t there before, a shadow that looms. But hopefully their reunification, their undying love for each other and for the people of Israel, who unyieldingly fought for their return, will be the light that brings them peace.