A year after the attack, Israeli couple recounts trying to get to their son on Oct. 7

TEL AVIV, Israel -- For Israeli husband-and-wife Noam Tibon and Gali Mir-Tibon, Oct. 7, 2023, began like any other day.

They went for an early-morning swim off the Tel Aviv coast on that Saturday morning. They heard sirens but continued to swim -- it was safer in the water. When they got back to their car, they checked their phones and saw a text from their son, Amir, that there was a terrorist inside their kibbutz, Nahal Oz, in southern Israel.

"I served 35 years in the military," Tibon, a retired Israel Defense Forces major general, told ABC News. When he pinged IDF generals about the situation, he said they responded: "We are aware and are on the way." That phrase "on the way" surprised Noam, because Israel's vaunted military should already have been there. "Something in my heart told me, 'Noam, you have to go there.'"

Tune in to ABC News Live at 4 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 7, for "Oct 7th: Race to Survive" -- special coverage of the anniversary of the conflict. Veteran correspondent Matt Gutman highlights voices of Israelis and Palestinians impacted by the war and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

They raced southward, speeding through red lights, Mir-Tibon recounted. She was driving, he was riding in the passenger seat, holding his pistol and frantically making calls.

"We are almost the only vehicle on the road," the novelist told ABC News. "We get another text message [that] says, there are terrorists in our neighborhood, the new neighborhood of Kibbutz Nahal Oz. So it's getting worse."

Along the way, they said they saw a police car blocking the road shooting at a white pickup that Mir-Tibon said they would later learn was a Toyota with Hamas terrorists.

They stopped the car while bullets flew ahead of them debating what to do, Tibon said.

"Suddenly, a young couple jump from the bushes wearing party clothes, which is unusual in this situation," Tibon said.

They were barefoot and asked for help, Mir-Tibon said.

"They get inside and they are very, very afraid," she said.

When they asked what happened, Tibon said the couple responded, shaking, "We were in the party. Many terrorists came. They slaughtered everybody."

The couple had fled the Nova music festival, the site of one of the worst civilian casualty incidents in Israel's history.

At least 260 people were killed by Hamas militants at the music festival, held in the Negev desert in southern Israel, during the terrorist group's surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Overall, militants killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages -- about 100 of whom remain in captivity, according to Israeli officials. It was the deadliest single day for the Jews since the Holocaust.

In the year since, Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

As the full scope of the attack that day was still unknown to them, Tibon said they turned around and drove away with the couple.

"You don't leave anyone behind you, it's not a hard decision," Tibon said.

They were able to drop the couple off with police before continuing on toward the kibbutz, Tibon recalled. Along the way, they continued to hear shots being fired and see dead bodies.

"It's all the way burning cars, bodies, bodies, bodies," Tibon said.

When they came upon a group of Israeli soldiers, Tibon begged them to take him to his son's kibbutz.

"The commander hesitates," he said. "And then one brave guy by the name of Avi ... he said, 'I'm going to help you.'"

Mir-Tibon stayed behind in a shelter while Tibon left with the soldier to find his son and his family. They joined Israeli paratroopers as they got to the gate of Kibbut Nahal Oz, he said.

"We are under very, very heavy fire by the terrorists," he recalled. "I was fighting for my life." He said he killed a squad of terrorists, and then tended to three Israeli paratroopers who'd been wounded, two of them severely. He was just yards from the gate of his son's kibbutz. He turned around and drove the wounded men back to his wife, who then drove back out of the hellscape with the men bleeding out in her car. Eventually, she found a pair of ambulances. The men all survived, the couple recounted.

Tibon returned through the gunfire again towards his son's kibbutz. Meeting another group of soldiers at the gate. He said he then spent several hours searching homes in the kibbutz -- ensuring everyone else was safe -- before arriving at his son's house, about 10 hours after the initial attack. He said he found the door locked, which gave him "hope."

"From all the houses that I search, if the door was locked, inside there is live people. If the door is open, blood and no people, or blood and bodies," he said.

Tibon said he banged on the window and yelled for his son, calling out, "It's Dad!"

He first heard his 3-year-old granddaughter say, "Grandpa here," he recalled.

Noam’s son Amir, his wife and their children were all rescued.

"This was a very emotional moment," Tibon said. "I felt I fulfilled my mission. But I have to rescue them and I have to rescue the whole kibbutz, they are not alone."

Tibon said he helped to evacuate more than 400 people out of the kibbutz.

Mir-Tibon had feared the worst at points while waiting to find out if her family survived.

"There were moments I think, if they're not alive, I don't think there is any point to my life," Mir-Tibon said. "We are the lucky ones."