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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Emma Graham-Harrison and Quique Kierszenbaum in Mazkeret Batya

‘I still want to go home’: teenager who saw his parents killed in Hamas attack on trying to rebuild his life

Rotem Matias with his dog Marko
Rotem Matias with his dog Marko: ‘I’ll never be the same as before, but I want to at least be in the same place.’ Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum/The Observer

The things that Rotem Matias misses used to be small parts of an ordinary life. The “perfect” pasta dish with cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and basil that no one cooks for him any more. Sitting with his mum, Shachar, after school, chatting about his day. His father Shlomi’s musical gifts, threaded through family life right back to Rotem’s earliest childhood memories.

“Other people’s parents would read bedtime stories when we were little, but my dad took a guitar and sang until I fell asleep,” he says.

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