ESHKOL REGIONAL COUNCIL, Israel – This third anniversary of October 7th marks the first with no hostages remaining in Gaza. As communities continue to rebuild, CBN News visited the area hardest hit on that fateful day.
In October, 2023, communities in the Eshkol Region were among those who suffered most from the Hamas massacre. Yet, that didn’t stop them. Although they are still healing, they’re facing the challenges and rebuilding.
Michal Uziyahu, the Mayor of the Eshkol Regional Council, told us, “It’s not easy to be the center of a historic event. It’s very painful. But when you are in the middle of a historic event, you have also the opportunity of writing the next chapter of history.”
The mayor believes that choosing hope and life is the best route for the Eshkol Region.
“I refuse to let our community become the symbol of the atrocities of October 7th,” she stated. “We will be the symbol of choosing life, the moment after, of rebuilding and flourishing and being with a very clear vision about our future.
The Eshkol Region contains 32 kibbutzim and various agricultural communities, plus the site of the Nova Music Festival. Uziyahu observed that the massive low-tech invasion, along with the barbarism and the sadism of October 7th, took them totally by surprise.
Mayor Uziyahu personally knew more than 100 of the people murdered that day.
“Eshkol, a community of 17,000 residents, (is) a special close human tapestry,” she explained. “259 of our community members were murdered, including babies, children, elderly people, and 119 hostages. Half of the hostages were from our community, and 70 percent of the massacre in our home.”
Located about three miles from the Gaza border, Kibbutz Be’eri looks like a new housing development today, with some 120 new homes under construction.
Three years ago, it became one of the hardest-hit communities, with more than 100 killed and another 30-plus kidnapped.
Seventy-year-old Itzhak Gad was born and raised here.
He recalled, “We were right in the middle of it all. There were terrorists in the house, around the house, on the house, and fortunately, the terrorists decided they wanted to leave this house intact, so that they could have a vantage point at the intersection over the road. And they sat there, and they stood there (waiting) for the soldiers to come.”
As terrorists moved heavy weapons to their roof, he, his wife, and his son remained in their “mamad” or in-home safe room for more than 12 hours.
Gad recalled, “And time passed, and a few hours later we suddenly heard two very, very big explosions. They (Hamas) shot two police cars that were entering the kibbutz. This explosion of the police jeeps ignited a very big fire, and the house started to burn. The terrorists who were on the roof and inside the house saw that the house was going to burn, so they fled. And it was our luck that the terrorists fled.”
An empty lot stands where the Gad family home once stood. All of the damaged kibbutz homes have been knocked down except for one that currently serves as a memorial.
Gad told us, “About 8:00 or 9:00 in the evening, we heard voices outside in Hebrew, asking if anyone’s home. The house didn’t look like it was accessible because it’s all burned up. And then my wife bravely opened the window, and she said, ‘Yes, we’re here, the Gad family.'”
Crawling out of the window still in their pajamas, they left their burned home with no possessions.
Gad remarked, “And that’s it, they took us out, and when we got out, we realized the size of the chaos. And that’s it. That’s how we survived.”
Most of the 1,100 surviving kibbutz residents were taken to a hotel at the Dead Sea.
A week after the attack, Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited the empty kibbutz along with a businessman whose printing company had been untouched by the fire or the terrorists.
After it reopened, Gad, a manager there, wanted to go back to work right away.
“I called all the departments; the majority arrived. It was very rough at first, but that’s how I drove, day after day,from the Dead Sea, an hour and a half each way. And afterwards, I felt it was difficult after a few months, and so I looked for a house in Be’eri that we could live in.”
After eight months, he and his wife returned to the kibbutz.
“The first night, I was here alone,” he remembered. “It was very cold and it was scary, and then there was another night and another night, and so you get used to it, you get used to the whole story.”
He added, “First there were a lot of explosions, a lot of gunfire, the army didn’t stop firing, the planes kept bombing.”
Gad showed us his new home, which is still being constructed.
“In every place that I was after the 7th of October, we felt like refugees,” he said. “Everyone looked at me, always with eyes of ‘poor thing,’ and here, I felt the best. When I got to Be’eri, I felt good. I felt at home. This is my home. I don’t have anything else.”
Gad estimates that eventually, about 90 percent of those who survived will return.
He predicted, “In the future, many people will return. Not everyone. Not everyone is able to stand against the fear, or the concerns or the challenges facing this kibbutz. Not everyone can live in a community that’s in mourning. There were a lot of hostages. There were hostages for months and years.”
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One of the most well-known residents of Be’eri is hostage survivor Eli Sharabi, who spent 491 days in captivity. After his release, he learned that his wife, two daughters, and his brother had been murdered that day.
Uziyahu contends that thinking about the Holocaust gave her strength because, after the murder of the six million, the Jewish people built a country. Now they’re holding onto radical hope.
The mayor observed, “We have many people with PTSD. Yes. Do I feel sorry for myself? What will it help? We have a lot of work to do. And just like after the Holocaust, they built a country. We will rebuild. We are rebuilding. And I think the results are amazing.”
Established before the State of Israel, Kibbutz Be’eri turns 80 on October 6th. Gad told us that each time they remember those lost, there is sadness mixed with joy.
“We’ll have very beautiful agriculture; everything will flourish, like they say, will bloom. Like you see here: the trees are green, and it will be greener and the fruit tastier. Eighty years of the State of Israel, of Kibbutz Be’eri – it means we will stay here forever. Whoever wants to remove us from here won’t succeed. Eighty years is only the beginning. We will also celebrate 800 years and 8000 years.”
