The nightmare at Kibbutz Kfar Aza
Kfar Aza resident Keren Lewinsohn delivered this speech at the communal solidarity event held in Melbourne last Friday.
The last six days have been a living nightmare, a surreal chapter in the story of our country and my kibbutz, Kfar Aza. A chapter I wish I could simply wake up from. Our close-knit community will never be the same again.
Kibbutz Kfar Aza is two kilometres from the Gaza border, a community of 230 families. Kfar Aza, like most of the kibbutzim along the Gaza strip, is a socialist left-wing community who have always believed in peace.
At 3.45pm on Saturday I received an alert on my phone from Ynet about suspected terrorists in the area of my kibbutz, Kfar Aza. I rushed to call my mum who couldn’t answer as they had poor reception because they were already in their bomb shelter. She then messaged me to say – “Keren we are in the mamad and so is Alon and family and Michal. We are fine, I even managed to make myself coffee. I will keep you updated.”
At 5.36pm I received another message from my mum telling me that apparently there are some casualties on the kibbutz. I was lost for words but this was only the beginning of a mass slaughter that was unfolding all around them.
For the next 16 hours, I was messaging our family chat every 15 minutes for updates. The responses were that things are only getting worse.
At 9.52pm my sister sent a message saying that her phone is about to go flat and she has no electricity. My brother responded – “Michal, don’t make any moves, stay as quiet as possible.”
We lost contact with my sister for 12 hours after that.
At 12.30am Sunday morning, my mum wrote on the family chat – “Where the hell is God? Just want my children and grandchildren to be safe.”
At 7.50am I messaged my nephew, Daniel, as no one was answering. He replied to say – “Sabba and Safta have just been rescued and we are hoping they will come to rescue us soon too.”
Later on at 10am Daniel messaged me to say they are now together with my parents at the petrol station outside the kibbutz, they have finally been rescued. But no word from Michal.
At that point, we were certain that she has either been killed or kidnapped. We haven’t heard from her in more then 12 hours, and she wasn’t with the people that have been rescued.
An hour later I finally received a message from my mum to say she has just heard – Michal is alive. She is with the army and in the process of been rescued. It took another eight hours for the army to evacuate her to safety.
My family have all been saved! All eight of them! They must have had angels looking over them. Others weren’t so lucky.
Kfar Aza’s family has lost more than 70 members – grandparents, children and babies. Many more are still missing.
Our closest family friend, Tal Eilon, has been killed. He was the mefaked of the kittat Konenot (the first response unit made up of ex-soldiers who are kibbutz members). Tal was like another brother.
My family friend, Smadar, has been killed, her husband was injured, and his body hasn’t been found.
Their six and eight-year-old boy and girl, hid in the cupboard and called their grandmother Shlomit, who was overseas, to tell her what had happened. For the next 10 hours she was on the phone with them until they could be rescued. Smadar’s little girl was found by the neighbour as she was wandering around outside the house, he took her into his mamad, with his wife and three kids. They were later on all kidnapped.
My childhood friend, Yahav, has been killed. The terrorists tried to enter through their bedroom window and Yahav tried to push it back while his wife Shaylee and four-week-old baby Shaya escaped through the front door. Shaylee then ran into a shed across the grass from their house (right behind my parent’s house) and hid in there for a while, hoping that little Shaya won’t start crying.
After about 30 minutes when Shaya started to cry, Shaylee decided she had to run out of the shed to find a safer location. She ran between houses until someone saw her through the window and let her in. She was in the bomb shelter with this family for another 19 hours with no food for the baby and inhaling fumes from the smoke coming from the next door house which was on fire.
Yahav saved Shaylee and Shaya’s life.
The stories of those who have survived the atrocities are just unimaginable. Nothing that we ever imagined any of us would have to live through in this lifetime.
My nephew Daniel’s best friend, was kidnapped and then was forced to walk from house to house at gun point to his head, calling people to come out of their bomb shelter. When they came out, they were shot in front of his face all while this is filmed live on social media. This is how my nephew found out about his missing friend.
Our family friend, Leora, who lives 50 metres from my parents, was faced with the horror of the terrorists twice. At first a group of them broke into her house while she was in the bomb shelter with her two children and three grandchildren.
She called for help which finally came and the terrorists were neutralised. She was told they had to stay in the bomb shelter until they can organise rescue. The rescue did not come.
Ten hours later the terrorists came again, this time they barricaded themselves in one of the bedrooms of the house. Once again, Leora called for help. This time the army told all six of them in the bomb shelter that they had to quickly crawl out of the house while the soldiers gave them cover and run in to the neighbouring house. Once they all got out, the army had to destroy her house to safely eliminate the terrorists hiding in the bedroom.
Leora has no house to go back to, along with most of the Kfar Aza community which has been completely decimated.
Kfar Aza is a resilient community who most definitely will rebuild. The bricks and mortar will take time but will eventually be complete.
However, the emotional scars and generational trauma these atrocities leave will never ever heal.
Keren Lewinsohn is a resident of Kibbutz Kfar Aza near the Israel-Gaza border.
comments