I had heard of Nir Oz, on October 7 and its aftermath. Along with Sderot, Nahal Oz, Be'eri, and the killing fields of Re'im - over 360 revelers massacred, after a long night of trance music, shot like rabbits, helpless, so helpless, how many of them violated, raped, kidnapped to Gaza.

Mostly, I thought of my friends in Sderot - had they been evacuated with the others, I thought of our walk, seven years ago, with the group of women in white (Women Wage Peace) led by Vivian, Vivian Silver, who lived in Be'eri.

I thought of the weird objects these peaceful people of the Gaza Envelope collected in their gardens, and kept in their yards, for some of them, as fateful reminders that something was dead wrong with the neighbourhood to the West.

I thought of the shelves in the yard of the police station in Sderot, where they also kept all the rockets that had been aimed at them (painted black by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad). Then came October 7, and a number of gunmen in vans from Gaza breached through the border. They first attacked a mini bus of senior citizens on a tour, stuck with a flat tire, and massacred the fifteen pensioners, point-blank, with the female driver. All in the name of "resistance", and "Allah. They then headed to the police station, overpowered it with superior firepower, and killed everyone inside.

That was what was left of the station the next day, when it was recaptured by the army. When I went there I could not find it. It had been razed.

Nor could I recognize a number of places, stores, houses. So many stores were still closed. There were so few people on the streets. I could not even get to my friends' home. I was lost. It was bound to be the same city of some thirty thousand people, most from Morocco, Russia, and Ethiopia, but without the majority of its inhabitants it had an eery, spooky air. Like in some scary film, bad acid trip. I knew Sderot was the key to it all, and yet it was jammed, it did not open onto anything.

I had to move on. Further down South. To Be'eri. For Vivian. Nobody knows anything about Be'eri. Even in Israel, most people tend to ignore, close their eyes.

Yet you had a thousand people in Be'eri, until October 6, 2024. It was one of the wealthiest equalitarian communities in the land, still sticking to its original ideal of a cooperative model. Politically, Be'erites are known to be "to the left of Meretz" -  Meretz being the most socialist of secular parties in Israel. Their main source of pride and income : Dfus Be'eri, the first printing house in the Negev. But their deeper source of sense and success is related to the special fund they created to give financial help to their neighbours in Gaza, and the number of volunteers among them who would drive sick Palestinians from the border to hospitals in Israel.  Vivian Silver was one of them. Born in February 49, a peace activist for most of her life, Vivian was in her home that morning. She took refuge in her shelter, and her last words on WhatsApp were a promise, a surreal promise that she would keep a big knife in her shelter if she survived.

A hundred people were massacred in a few hours. When the attackers could not kill point-blank, or seize as hostages, they would set fire to the house. For weeks we thought Vivian had been taken hostage to Gaza. She was finally identified from her DNA in the charred remains of her body, at the morgue of the Shura base.

I could not enter Be'eri. It was under military closure. I had to drive on.

Somehow it was both too late and too early to take care of the dead.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/opinion/israel-national-crisis.html

https://www.timesofisrael.com/kibbutz-beeri-declines-independence-day-torch-lighting-role-rejecting-heroism-theme/

 

Yaniv Kubovich, Nir Hasson, Haaretz, April 24, 2024

How Could Israel's Army Abandon This Kibbutz for Seven Hours on October 7?

Rachel Fink, Haaretz, April 12, 2024

Preparing for Passover in Southern Israel's Kibbutz Nir Oz: 'Please, Let Us Celebrate Freedom'

Nir Hasson, Haaretz, December 28, 2023

Nir Oz Survivors Leave Eilat Hotel, Face Likelihood They Won't Be Going Home Again

Sivan Klingbail, Haaretz, November 13, 2023

Reunion of Sorrow: We Never Thought Hamas Would One Day Destroy Our Kibbutz 

Islamic Jihad releases video of hostage Sasha Trufanov from Gaza  https://www.ynetnews.com/article/s1rtcum4c 

 

Kassy Dillon, Fox News, October 27, 2024 

https://www.foxnews.com/media/no-time-elderly-holocaust-educator-kidnapped-hamas-needs-critical-medication-son-says

Posting this article in July 2024, we know that Alex will not come back alive from Gaza.

That does not mean we shall forget him, ever. In this article you will learn how Alex's wife, son's wife, and grandchildren survived.

‘We have no time’: Elderly Holocaust educator kidnapped by Hamas needs critical medication, son says

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-06-03/ty-article/.premium/body-of-murdered-israeli-presumed-hostage-since-oct-7-found-in-gaza-border-kibbutz/0000018f-dcff-d000-adbf-ddff22700000

Body of Murdered Israeli Presumed Held by Hamas Since Oct. 7 Found in Gaza Border Kibbutz Nir Oz      June 2, 2024 

https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-805000

'Mommy, no, don't die': Recording of Cunio family kidnapping in Nir Oz reveals October 7 horror

 Matan Tzuri, YNet News, June 19, 2024

IDF Chief of Staff visits Nir Oz for 1st time since October 7, apologizes for IDF missteps

 

The Times of Israel, July 21, 2024

IDF probe finds it failed to properly respond to Oct. 7 Nir Oz invasion – report

 

Yonah Jeremy Bob,  The Jerusalem Post, July 22, 2024

Hostages Alex Dancyg, Yagev Buchshtab confirmed dead, IDF likely at fault

« I ask ‘what total victory'?" she said. "When all this was happening. When terrorists took over Kibbutz Nir Oz. When two of my little cousins – girls aged 6 and 8, my grandfather's granddaughters – escaped from the window of their burnt home and can no longer dream normal childhood dreams. At that moment, the possibility of an absolute victory was no longer in our grasp. ... What total victory are you talking about? How is spilled blood total victory? How much longer will our soldiers die? How much longer will the hostages continue to die? How long will people be displaced from their homes?

 

"The longer it takes, the longer it will be before we can heal all these things! What total victory? Come down to the people. Look them in the eyes. And if you can't do it, step aside for someone who can – for someone who can end this war, stop the destruction and devastation, and bring the hostages home."

Talia Dancyg, born in 2006, Alex's granddaughter

 

Kibbutz Nir Oz says body of hostage Maya Goren recovered from Gaza

 

Shani Littman, Haaretz, July 27, 2024 

'I Wanted Them to Like Me. That's How You Survive': Liat Atzili Spent Weeks Conversing With Her Hamas Captors. Here's What They Talked About

 

The Times of Israel, July 29, 2024 

Ex-hostage: Slain captive Chaim Peri said Netanyahu won’t work to free us because we’re leftists

 

 The Jerusalem Post, August 9, 2024

Mother of two hostages in Gaza: 'I received a sign of life'

 

The Jerusalem Post, August 16, 2024

'This is not an act of resistance': Relative of Bibas family speaks out

 

The Jerusalem Post, August 17, 2024

Tied up and beaten by a mob: New abduction footage of hostage Aryeh Zalmanovich

 

YNet News, August 20, 2024

Kibbutz Nir Oz announces hostage Avraham Munder killed in Gaza captivity

 

Gadi Zaig, Yael Halfon, The Jerusalem Post, August 20, 2024 

Israel recovers bodies of six hostages from Gaza Strip Haim Peri, Amiram Cooper, Yoram Metzger, Avraham Munder, from Nir Oz

 

Dani Bar On, Haaretz, August 21, 2024 

'If Netanyahu Wanted a Deal, This Interview Wouldn't Have Taken Place' Says Father of Hamas Hostages from Nir Oz

Itzik Horn, waiting for his sons detained in Gaza, Yair and Etan

 

 Saul Singer, The Times of Israel, August 25, 2024

Munders and Metzgers, salt of the earth

 

Yael Freidson, Eden Solomon, Haaretz, August 29, 2024 

Rescued Hostage Confirms Arye Zalmanovich Was Murdered in Gaza Captivity While Held Together

Farhan al-Qadi, the Bedouin Israeli captured on October 7 by the Gaza border, rescued yesterday, was with Aryeh underground. He saw him dying from not receiving the needed medication, and the proper medical care he needed.

"a special bond formed between them, as he provided non-medical support to my father"  Boaz Zalmanovich, Aryeh's son

"We constantly fear that people are being murdered through physical and emotional suffering without medication or food,"

"people are killed over time, as they are not fed and do not receive medicine." 

 "We call once again, especially on the Israeli government and its leader: there is no time for hesitation or delay. Everyone must come home now before it's too late."

Kibbutz Nir Oz

Aryeh was beaten during his captivity, and taken to Gaza without his glasses and hearing aid

The Times of Israel, August 29, 2024 

Son says Aryeh Zalmanovich, 86, ‘was murdered’ in Gaza hospital next to Farhan al-Qadi

 

Lior Ohana, YNet News, September 2, 2024

New footage shows abduction, captivity of 84-year-old Elma Avraham

 

Sharone Lifshitz, Haaretz, September 4, 2024 

My Father Is a Hostage in Gaza. Do I Have to Beg Netanyahu to Save Him?

When I think back to October 2023, I think about how innocent we all were

A heavy shadow hovers over everything and everyone, the shadow of your continued abandonment. 

 

YNet News, September 12, 2024  [ Yarden Bibas and Ofer Kalderon in cages]

Former Nir Oz hostage says she was held with Yarden Bibas in tunnels

 

Gideon Levy, Haaretz, October 5, 2024 

Death Was Omnipresent Here: Revisiting the Sites of the October 7 Attacks, One Year Later

 

Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel, October 6, 2024 

A year after Oct. 7, Kfar Aza and Nir Oz are mostly empty, with residents in anguish

 

The Jerusalem Post, October 9, 2024

Yarden Bibas turns 35 in second birthday as Hamas hostage

 

Taken captive: Naama Levy, Hands of Peace project alumnus

Taken captive: Arbel Yehud, third generation on Kibbutz Nir Oz  killing and kidnapping a quarter of the kibbutz residents

Taken captive: Gadi Moshe Mozes, expert potato farmer, ‘saba’ to all

Taken captive: Devoted uncle and Nir Oz resident Yair Horn

'I Constantly Wonder if Sasha Is Managing to Hold on to Hope in Gaza'

 

Ofri Bibas Levy, YNet News, October 24, 2024 

'The hole in our souls deepens everyday,' says sister of hostage Yarden Bibas

 

Nir Hasson, Haaretz, October 26, 2024 [Yair & Eitan Strom, Gaza captives from Nir Oz] 

'Every Day I Wake Up and Don't Understand How I'm Still in the Same Nightmare'

 

 

 

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