“When you rationally think about it, I shouldn’t be standing right now in a greenhouse right at a war zone. When a mortar is launched and a siren is heard, we are instructed that we have 15 seconds to take cover. Basically, this translates into immediately laying on the ground and covering my head with my hands. After the horrific massacre of civilians, children, and whole families, the entire Israeli civilian society was mobilized to volunteer and help out wherever needed. Unfortunately, there is so much to do. I am here to help the farmers in the Gaza border area to pick their vegetables. They urgently need this help to survive. For me, volunteering is not a totally altruistic action. It does express my need to help but also my way to deal with my anguish, grief, and anger. It is a case of action that speaks louder than words. ...
Manager of Urim dairy farm Kibbutz Urim. Eshkol Regional Council, (About 12 km from the Gaza Strip) “In the morning of that horrendous Shabbat, Haim, my Husband went on a bicycle ride with his good friend. They didn’t manage to get too far from the Kibbutz as they saw the massive barrage of rockets that were launched into Israel from the Gaza Strip. I started texting him on WhatsApp and told him about a rumor that was circulating about massive gunshots around Urim junction. It didn’t take long until he sent me a picture of his bleeding hand saying he was shot. He later told me, they saw a pickup truck, full of terrorists aiming a machine gun at them. Luckily, his friend screamed at him: ‘Haim, Lay down!’ so most of the bullets flew over their heads. It was pure luck that the terrorists didn’t stop for dead checking and continued to their next ...
Kfar Aza. “In the early morning hours of Saturday, October 7, 2023, I woke up to sirens wailing throughout my village. I’ve been living in Kfar Aza for most of my life and unfortunately, sirens were a big part of it. They come and go but this time it felt different. My middle brother who is part of the Kfar emergency security squad texted me that terrorists invaded our community and that we should lock ourselves in our safe room. We started to receive horror messages on our Kfar WhatsApp group saying that terrorists were inside people’s homes, shooting, throwing grenades, and setting fires to houses in order to force people to get out of their safe rooms. At 10 O’clock in the morning, my younger brother Alon texted me that terrorists were inside his house. I texted him that I loved him and that he had to be strong no matter what. Two minutes later, at 10:02 he sent me ...
Kibbutz Be’eri, Survivor of the 7th of October massacre. “After the massacre, people asked me: ‘How are you doing’? I replied: ‘Alive’. For the first month, that was my sole answer to every person who asked me that question. I still don’t know how the Be’eri community will be able to process and internalize what we have gone through. The horrors, the loss of lives, the hostages, the feeling of being so helpless. For seven hours there was no one except the emergency response team to protect the children, the adults, the babies, and the families who were slaughtered and burned. This was a holocaust, right outside our doorstep. When the IDF soldiers arrived at about 3 p.m., the Arabic was replaced by Hebrew, and this gave us some hope that there was a chance to get out of this alive. The stories are piling up and the silence is deafening. ...