Young Australian ready to go to war for her other country

The 28-year-old Australian had been due to attend the music festival at the weekend at which 260 of her compatriots were killed by Hamas gunmen.

Mai Gutman, a reservist in an IDF search and rescue unit.

Mai Gutman is waiting by the phone for a call that will put her back in uniform and back with her old army unit, as Israel gears up for the biggest military mobilisation in its history.

The 28-year-old Australian counts herself lucky to be alive and ready to serve her country.

She had been due to attend the Nova music festival in the Negev desert at the weekend at which 260 of her countryman were killed by Hamas gunmen, but cancelled at the last minute.

Her family had decided to celebrate the holiday together in Jerusalem and she wanted to be with them. “It just goes to show what a miracle – all those people my age, they’re all my friends, young people with bright futures who went to a music festival and were gunned down for no reason other than that they were Jewish,” she said.

“That could have been me; that could have been anyone I know, my brothers, sisters, best friends. The thought is just unfathomable. We cannot comprehend it.”

Ms Gutman had been in several Whats­App groups linked to the festival, trying to find friends she could catch a ride with to the event. “The WhatsApp groups that went off on the Saturday morning when everything was happening were horrific. People were saying, ‘Please what do we do, they’re shooting at us, my friends been shot’.

“Horrific messages and I’m sitting with my phone in my hand, in absolute disbelief. It’s absolute Armageddon. The images and the footage that were coming from this looked apocalyptic.”

Ms Gutman lives in Ra’anana, about 20 minutes north of Tel Aviv, and works as a public information officer with the Zionist Federation of Australia. She was born in Israel but came to Australia at 18 months with her Australian mother and Israeli father.

She is in the reserves of a search and rescue unit that engages in combat, and fully expects to be mobilised: her unit is stationed in the north of the country, where tensions are escalating with Hezbollah on the border with Lebanese border.

Ms Gutman said her parents were “absolutely terrified” about her being called up for military service but understood she had to answer the call of duty.

“I called my mum last night and she was just crying on the phone. Every person I know knows someone who’s been killed. Everybody’s in a constant state of terror and mourning. Our friend’s cousin was killed – he’s a father who left behind five children.”

Now, she says, Israel is facing an existential threat. “This has just become very real. It’s the most Jewish people who have died in a single day since the Holocaust.

Ms Gutman is an Australian reservist with the Israeli Defence Forces.

“This is something we have to do now, and if we don’t do it, we could lose our country. We could lose our state of security, especially for those living in the diaspora, Israel is our security, our refuge. We don’t have a choice in this.”

The images of people being taken killed and taken hostage were devastating, she said.

“We’re all trying to just do what we need to do in order to save these poor citizens, innocent civilians that have been taken, kidnapped, tortured, and are sitting somewhere in the heart of the Gaza Strip in tunnels.”