A few days ago I was in Israel on the Gaza border. What I saw was shocking.
I visited several communities that were attacked on October 7th by Hamas. Among them were Netiv Ha’Asara, Nahal Oz, and Kibbutz Re’im. When we finished at the communities, we went to the site of the Nova music festival.
The denial is rampant. Many in places like X claim that the terrorism either did not happen altogether, or that the Israeli military mowed down its own people via the Hannibal directive. In reality, the Hannibal directive is a military tactic that does exist in Israel, intended to prevent the capture of active duty military personnel who have classified information sensitive to the ongoing conflict. It does not apply to civilians, of which the majority of those attacked by Hamas were.
We first went to Netiv Ha’asara and from the Moshav we could look directly into the Gaza Strip. On October 7th, 3 Hamas operatives used buckeyes to fly into the village and massacre at least 17 of its residents.
One was a 78-year-old woman, Chavik Segal, a great-grandmother who ran into a bomb shelter, believing the town to be under missile fire. Hamas followed her into that bomb shelter and shot her 9 times at point blank in the small 3 foot by 4 foot room. She was not armed. I stood where she died. It was horrific.
Another was an elderly couple named Belha and Kobi Yanon. Their home was burned to the ground while they were inside. All that remains is the foundation, and the home’s small concrete safe room intended to protect from missile strikes. Their daughter happened to be in town and she invited us to her late mother's art studio behind the burned-out house. When I reached the back of the safe room, the only standing portion of the house, I noticed a banner on the back calling for peace with Gaza in Arabic and in Hebrew.
Gil Taasa was a father in Ha’Asara. He awoke to sirens and gunfire, and rushed his two boys into their bomb shelter. Hamas brigadiers came up to the shelter after they entered and threw a grenade inside. Gil, without hesitation, jumped on the grenade using his own body to shield his boys. Hamas operatives then dragged the children out over their father's body, and through his blood. One of the boys was hit with shrapnel in his eye. I had the misfortune of seeing every moment of that incident from start to finish when I watched the “bear witness film” containing the ring footage inside and outside of Gil’s home on that day. I watched him die, I watched the terrorists throw a grenade inside of that confined concrete building after watching an unarmed father and his two children all still in their pajamas enter it.
The next place we went was a kibbutz called Nahal Oz. Nahal Oz was luckier than some other Kibbutzim on the border, as there was a special operations unit near by that assisted with defense. Unfortunately, many members of that unit fought until they no longer could. Many were injured. The attacks at Nahal Oz came in waves. Ultimately, despite valiant efforts, at least 15 civilians and 60 IDF soldiers were murdered. Additionally, at least 8 civilians and several soldiers were taken hostage back to Gaza.
An Israeli influencer I met the day after, showed me evidence gathered by Israeli intelligence that she could view. This evidence is not exclusive to Nahal Oz but is rather items found on Hamas Terrorists. Among them are UNRWA ID cards, UNRWA is the UN relief agency responsible for Palestinians. She also showed me videos of “hostage taking kits” which included tranquilizers, tourniquets, and hand bindings.
From the Nahal Oz military base several “observers” were taken hostage. Observers are women - because women are more observant than men - who analyze and watch camera screens in the military. They are responsible for detecting enemy activity.
When civilians were scared into their homes at Nahal Oz, Gazan civilians began breaching the border with Hamas operatives. They, however, had a different plan in mind. They began stealing tractors and other farming equipment from the already broken community.
At Re’im we sat down with Harel and Karen Oren. Harel is the head of security in Kibbutz Re’im. See, many of these Kibbutz were unable to store firearms in their houses per the Army. Harel had argued with the military to allow it in Re’im. To the fortune of his people, he was obsessed with security. He convinced the army that the weapons could be stored in homes inside of security boxes, safes. But they were expensive, so he then had to convince his people the expensive safes were a worthwhile investment. Luckily he managed to do so. In other Kinbutzim, weapons were stored in the armory. Those armories were inaccessible once the stree to were filled with terrorists, making the residents defenseless.
Not in Re’im. Harel and the men of his community spring into action, defending their home against the invaders. They’d hide in bushes, shoot the enemy and then hide once again. That lasted from 7 am to 12 pm when the army finally arrived. Luckily, the man commanding the soldiers who arrived at Re’im knew the area well, he was from either Re’im or a nearby Kinbutz. He aided Harel and successfully repelled the terrorists.
Unfortunately, this did not stop at least 8 people from being killed.
The Nova music festival site was especially difficult for me, because I recognized many of the places there from the bear witness film. The film is 47 minutes of straight carnage that occurred on that day.
Specifically, as soon as we arrived on the bus, I noticed the bar area. The last time I had seen this place it was on a theater screen. It was completely covered in carnage, bodies everywhere, blood soaking the ground. I have some photos of the bar, but nothing comes close to resembling the IDF soldier's body camera as he called out asking if anyone was alive.
Roughly 400 people were killed at this site just outside of Kibbutz Re’im. Near the stage, the posters go on endlessly, like looking at an ocean horizon. They seem to go on forever.
