Interfaith Mission, Day Two: In the killing zones

Interfaith Mission, Day Two:  In the killing zones of the October 7th Hamas Terror Attack from Gaza.

"What Have You Done for Them Today?"

Today was a difficult day.  An early rise, followed by quick davening and an Israeli breakfast saw us headed down south to grapple with the reality of October 7th.  Today is day 481 for those held in captivity, and day 481 since the horror of Hamas' brutal attack. 

We arrived in Ofakim, over 16 miles from Gaza.  

A team of 13 terrorists in two vehicles had entered the city that day and immediately killed four people on the street.  They then laid out dozens of weapons, including pistols, rifles, rpgs, and a should launcher anti-aircraft missile on the ground.  They quickly armed themselves and entered a civilian residential neighborhood, splitting up to hunt people down.  With missile alarms sounding, people in older homes were forced outside to enter communal shelters on the street.  Many were killed right then.  Once the terrorists began shooting, police and civilians began resisting, and in Ofakim there were battles on a larger scale than elsewhere in the early stages of the day.  Terrorists entered homes, to kill as many as they could.  As we walked the neighborhood, we read the signs and saw the pictures of loved ones killed here... killed over there... killed around the corner.  The memorials are simple, and devastating.

After the attacks were defeated in Ofakim, it became clear that 53 of their residents had been murdered, including a van full of elderly women headed out for a vacation spa day at the Red Sea.  Unlike the small kibbutzim closer the Gaza, Ofakim chose not to evacuate in the days following, and all those who experienced it remain in their homes and their neighborhoods.  

We visited a resiliency center, where the trauma - so widespread - can be supported.  Counselors, discussion groups, activities, games... whatever people need.  The center was opened with the aid of the government, the Jewish Agency, and the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest.  It will be needed, with others like it, for years  to come.

From Ofakim, we travelled to Kibbutz Nir Oz. 

We met with Liat Atzili for more than an hour as she walked us through her bullet ridden, burned out village.  Liat's husband Aviv went out as part of the kibbutz's early response team, and was killed.  Today his body is held hostage in Gaza.  Two of her three children were home, and survived the attack. Liat was taken hostage to Khan Younis for 53 days, and released in a prisoner deal in November 2023.  

Liat is a teacher of the holocaust at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and history in her area high school.  She invited us into her home, and I was overcome by a sense of intrusion.  She chided me - "why? this is my house and I am inviting you in.  You are not intruding."  She talked of wanting us back when they had rebuilt, and she could offer us tea and cookies.

I wandered the burned buildings.  Children's school backpacks (pink and grey) hung on a hook outside a door, where they have remained for over a year. Laundry hanging to dry. Children's scooters, play kitchen and doll houses in the small yards. On every broken door, a picture of the missing and the murdered hung, with flags - yellow for the hostages and black for the dead.  We placed orange balloons at the home of the Bibis family.

One out of ever four residents of Nir Oz was either murdered or stolen hostage on October 7, 2023.  Their mailboxes indicate who they are:  Red is a captive, black a murder victim, and blue has been freed from captivity in a hostage deal.

  

The "safe room" doors have no locks, being designed against shrapnel, not invasions.

Meanwhile, missing, murdered, and relocated faces are plastered on their abandoned homes.

We continued to the Nova Festival site, 

...where a mass murder of 364 young people, and 15 police officers was perpetrated by the "Iz al Din al Qassam Brigades" Hamas terrorists.  The memorial has pictures of the killed in the dance stage area, and family memorials throughout the park, telling the story of these most peace loving people, and who they were.  At the "small bar" where almost 3 dozen victims hid, an explanation of their death is posted by their families.  They had tried to flee to the road, but were turned back by the police who said there was fighting down the road and they should go back.  By the time the terrorists had overcome the police on the road, they were sitting ducks.  Hundreds of killers just hunted them all down.  364 murders, one by one as they fled, hid, and tried to just survive.

I located a tree I planted here last year on another mission....

It is devastating to see literally hundreds of young, joyful Israelis in this picture - all murdered by Hamas.

We gathered as Rabbi Abby Treu of Congregation Oheb Shalom in South Orange, NJ, chanted the el malei rachamim prayer for their souls, and to remember them.  I was overcome not only by what humans can do to each other, but by what they want to do to each other.

While down south we also visited an amazing place of hope and light:  The Hagar Arab-Jewish Elementary school in Beer Sheva.  Supported by public funds and the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest, the Hagar school has a fully mixed Arab and Jewish faculty and student body, teaching and working in both languages while learning about each other's communities.  The experiment works beautifully, and the children graduate back into their own high schools with a better base line understanding of the shared society that is truly Israel.

 

 

Emotionally exhausted, we returned to Jerusalem and heard from Arab Israeli journalist Khaled Abu Toameh, who spoke of not just Arab Israelis but Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.  Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning Israeli Arab journalist, lecturer, and documentary filmmaker specializing in Palestinian affairs. A Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, he has also worked as a senior producer for NBC in the Middle East and has reported on events in the West Bank and Gaza for several media outlets.  

Publications by Khaled Abu Toameh

He reminded us that too often people forget that the Israeli democracy includes 20% Arab citizens who are full members of Israeli society.  They do not seek a separation from Israel.  Israel is their country.  Yet tensions are high, and the far right demonization of Arabs is making it worse.  But that can be addressed, he assured us.  And he was absolutely clear as an Arab in Israel:  Hamas must not be left in charge of Gaza, and always has wanted only the destruction of Israel and the imposition of an Islamist state in its place.  That is what "From the River to the Sea" has always meant, and that is what it means today.

After such a long, and emotional day, we returned to the hotel.  Tomorrow we go north and the Interfaith Clergy will explore our origins in the land, and the beginning of Jesus' ministry in Capernaum.  More on that tomorrow.

Laila Tov.

None of this would have been possible without to complete support, sponsorship and advocacy of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest, who funded, designed and led this remarkable experience.

Please consider supporting the Jewish Federation here.  GMW Donations

Gratefully Submitted by,

Rabbi Robert L Tobin

Rosh Chodesh Tevet, 5785

January, 2025