Spending a Day in Kibbutz Be’eri

One of the imperative responsibilities for every individual during this war and the future after its resolution is to witness first-hand the destruction that took place on October 7th in order to be a personal attestor of the reality of what happened. As many media outlets attempt to deny the severity of the atrocities that took place, it is critical that we must be able to personally attest to its horrifying reality.

Arriving at Kibbutz Be’eri

When we entered our bus, we were surrounded by the noise of our beautiful, nature-filled, bubble-like group, but upon arriving at Kibbutz Be’eri, we quickly became aware of just how intense the battle was, and still is in Be’eri. Within seconds of stepping off the bus, we heard the shooting of artillery aimed towards Gaza that sent ripples down each of our spines and resulted in flinches from many members in our groups. What felt like thirty seconds later, you would then hear that same artillery shell hit its target in what was a relatively “quiet” burst of noise.

Preparing for the Visit

We were informed that we had the unfortunate, yet necessary, opportunity to go to Kibbutz Be’eri roughly a week prior to making the trip. Upon learning that we were going to go to the kibbutz, I made the decision to make myself more aware of the raw details about what happened, specifically in Be’eri, in order to better understand the reality and the situation of what happened there. I read article after article recounting the events that had taken place during the painstakingly long days in Be’eri while Hamas held nearly unrestrained power during the three days of fighting. Prior to the knowledge that we were going to personally visit Be’eri, I had chosen to slightly isolate myself from the details of what had taken place during the October 7th massacre. I felt that, while it was important to know the “jist” of what had occurred, the small, stomach-turning details that caused the massacre to be even more atrocious, would be more harmful than beneficial to me. Especially since I was in Israel at the time of the attack. 

Personal Accounts: Stories from Residents

Once we arrived, we split into two groups, one went with Yuval and our group went with Eyal; both were residents of Kibbutz Be’eri. Eyal showed us his home and shared his personal story of that day and then began to show us other homes and shared others’ stories with us. Stepping over rubble and hearing the shattered glass crunch underneath the weight of each of our footsteps brought a stark contrast to what was undoubtedly a once happy and joyful home to each family. 

Unimaginable Tragedies

There was no mercy shown nor any distinction made by these evil perpetrators when it came to the murders they committed: Vivian Silver, a peace advocate and the director of the Arab Jewish Center For Empowerment, Equality, and Cooperation was murdered in her home in Be’eri. She was thought to be taken hostage because her body was not found. However, she was later pronounced dead after archeologists discovered a DNA sample belonging to her from the charred remnants of her home. The damage to these homes and innocent, loving people were so gruesome that archeologists had to be brought in to sift through the ashes in order to see if there were any traces of prior human life that could no longer be discovered by the paramedics. Young children were murdered without second thought. An eighty year old man was shot and later died after he pleaded to his attackers by bartering with them that they could take all of his belongings, but begged that they wouldn’t shoot him. We heard his final moments on a recording of a phone call with one of his daughters as she desperately tried to inform him how to stop his bleeding and tell him that he would live. His desperate responses still echo in my mind: he told her that he was losing blood and that he couldn’t hear her. Some of the most heart wrenching words were these: “somebody help me, please somebody save me,” and “goodbye.” His other daughter lived nearby and had the horrifying experience of helplessly watching his home, her childhood home, go up in flames with him inside of it. She had attempted to rescue him by running out of her home with a knife, but the area was so overrun with terrorists that she was forced to retreat back to her own home.

Witnessing Scenes of Tragedy and Horror

We witnessed where the Evens family desperately tried to hide after fleeing their home, but were later found killed. They and their two teenagers were able to protect the two youngest children from the same fate that they themselves had received by using themselves as shields.

We saw a street where every single house had someone who was brutally murdered within it. We also saw the ruins of the Bachars’ home, a family whose 13 year old daughter had made a video call to the ambulance services in an attempt to save her wounded father. House after house was riddled with bullet holes, marks of explosions, discoloration from the smoke that filled nearly every inch of the homes, and belongings scattered over the floors. We saw one home where there had been food still in the oven waiting to be happily eaten by a family at the breakfast table. Later, we saw a town home that had been bulldozed and burnt that bore witness that a young family had been living there by a smoke-stained stuffed animal sitting on the blackened window sill. 

Community in Crisis: Strength Amidst Tragedy

Kibbutz Be’eri was a community filled with love. Their hearts overflowed with love for each other and love for nature. The entire kibbutz was a beautiful display of what was certainly an oasis of greenery and life in the Negev. As the tragedies unfolded on October 7th, neighbors WhatsApped and called each other constantly. They shared with each other where the terrorists were and where and when families could escape from their burning homes, they asked one another for advice on how to keep the smoke from entering the safe rooms, they shared the best way to secure their safe room doors in a way that, when the terrorists started shooting through the door, only their hands would be shot and that they would not receive any lethal wounds. They shared when the terrorists would enter their homes and their neighbors’ homes and would share with one another when one of the community members was murdered. This kibbutz of roughly 1,200 people prior to the attack that helped and supported each other throughout the entirety of the massacre gives the heartfelt understanding that they were undeniably a family. 

Trying to Understand the Unthinkable

There is nothing about this attack that is even slightly understandable. The attackers had made detailed maps of the community prior to the attack in order to know who would be home at the time of the slaughter, yet appeared to still hit homes at random. At some safe rooms they would spend hours attempting to break in, but at others they would give up and move on after only a short period of time. They claim to be fighting for “freedom from the Israeli occupation”, yet chose to attack the people who made the strongest efforts for peace and friendship on behalf of the Palestinians. The only understandable intention of the attack is this: their intention was to kill without mercy, without hesitation, and without reason and to kidnap without distinction. Nearly 1 out of every 10 residents were killed in Be’eri, but the streets were also strewn with corpses of innocent, scared, and desperate people from the Nova festival, the courageous soldiers and first responders who fought against the enemy, and the bodies of the terrorists who committed these atrocities. Be’eri’s once serene streets had become streets filled with horror and tragedy. 

Be’eri was once an oasis and it will be again one day. Many community members have a desire to return and rebuild their lives from the ashes. Hamas had the intention of burning and burying the Jewish people, but Hamas seems to have forgotten that every time the Jewish people have experienced a massacre, they rebuild and return with a renewed zeal and strength. Be’eri will once again be an oasis, but this time it will boast of its perseverance and return to beauty from its bloodied rubble.