A Passage to Israel Part 2: A Day of Heroes and Grief

On Saturday October 7th, 1200 Israelis were killed. 240 were taken as hostages. Over 100 remain in captivity.

I recently returned after 5 days on the ground in Israel. This is what I saw and heard.

Part 1 of the Series, The Remnant of Evil, can be found here .

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Alon woke up at 6am, planning to go for a hike in the marvelous backcountry of southern Israel with his wife.

Things moved slowly at first, and by the time he got to his coffee, it was already 6:30am.

The rocket alert chirped on his phone. He roused his wife and they headed into the shelter. Like many that day, Alon and his wife thought the rocket attacks would end quickly. They did not.

The Netiv Hassara Whatsapp channels began to light up with panic and questions.

The first one Alon sent was to his son, Tal, who spent Friday night on the beach to get ready to surf on the morning of Shabbat.? Tal loved to surf. ?

Tal responded that he was heading into a shelter on the beach.?

Needing water, Alon peeked out of the safe room and saw a shadow pass across the window in front of him.? Then heard gunfire at his next door neighbors home.?

His army training kicked in – he told his wife to stay put and Alon grabbed the gun stored in his home. He eased his way out his front door and immediately dove to the ground.? Across the lawn was a man dressed in black with a TOW missile strapped to his back.?

This was not normal.

Quickly, Alon fired his weapon and the terrorist fell into a ditch, wounded, but pinned down. Alon was too.

When a small cadre of Israeli soldiers arrived, they didn’t believe that there was a terrorist in the ditch.? Eventually Alon maneuvered into a position where he could prove it to them – and shot the Hamas fighter.

As they moved on to engage more invaders, Alon sensed the scent of gunpowder, the sound of screams, the smoke of fire.? The kibbutz at Netiv Hassara, a place he had spent much of his life, a place where his family had grown and thrived, was unrecognizable.

He saw body after body of kibbutz members lying on the ground, pools of blood around them. Some with spent cartridges, others unarmed.

One was a photographer who happened to get pictures of a strange parachuting vehicle and man flying across the fences during the opening moments of the assault.? The paraglider landed feet from the photographer – and shot him dead. The image of that paraglider, for a moment, was used by nefarious forces to laud the “creativity” of the murderous invaders.?

Alon saw a terrorist enter a shelter on the side of the road.? He heard gunshots – then silence.? An 80 year old woman had taken refuge there – and been cut down within the “safe” house.? During our site visit, we saw the bullet holes – low to the ground as the murderer pointed the weapon down into a huddled old woman.

Alon ran from garden to garden, eventually passing a blazing inferno.? One of the houses had caught fire – by the end of the day it was completely burned to the ground.? An elderly couple resided there, and while after a few days, bone fragments could be used to identify the husband, there was not enough left to identify the wife.? She is technically still listed as missing.

As Alon neared the edge of the kibbutz, he joined up with a friend.? A shot rang out – and the friend collapsed from a bullet to the leg.? A few IDF members were nearby, and Alon asked them for help.?

“You’re on your own – we need to fight.”

Alon dragged his friend across the kibbutz to a makeshift aid center.? When he was done, exhausted, he found his way back home. His wife was safe – but more awaited him.

His son’s texts had stopped. There was something about men coming across the border on the beach, a run for the shelter, being pursued.? Then nothing.

Alon frantically called his daughter who had spent the weekend camping, but upon hearing the alerts, quickly drove towards home. Alon told his daughter to start searching every hospital near Ashkalon – the largest Israeli city on the northern border of Gaza and just miles away from Alon’s home at Netiv Hassara, the closest kibbutz to the Gaza border.

Once the terrorists were somewhat repelled and he could leave his community, Alon joined his daughter in the search.

It proved fruitless.? Tal was not in any hospital.? There were no reports of him being brought anywhere.

Finally, Alon arrived at the largest hospital and saw a woman he knew – the mother of Tal’s best friend. Silently she guided Alon to the morgue.

Among the piled up bodies, Alon spotted Tal’s.? Unmoving, pale, silent.?

17 year old Tal was dead.

Alon told us that was the second hardest moment of his life.? He would soon face the hardest moment. He drove back to Netiv Hassara in a state of shock, then told his wife.? She knew as soon as she saw him.

The woman who showed Alon to the morgue is married to the leader of Netiv Hassara, Bennie.?

Like many living in Kibbutz’ along the Gazan border, Bennie strove for a two-state solution. His business partner of two years commuted in from Gaza weekly.? They had built things together, broken bread, talked of peace in the region.

The Wednesday before Oct 7th, the Palestinian business partner didn’t show up as he normally would.? After the events of the Black Shabbat, Israeli information revealed he had been turned away at the border because it was discovered the business partner was also a Hamas Judge in Gaza – doling out the execution judgements that often come in trials there.

During the attack, the terrorists had an uncanny understanding of the most vulnerable parts of the Kibbutz.?

The leader of Netiv Hassara – once a staunch advocate of peace and reconciliation – expressed something far different in the aftermath of October 7th.? He readily acknowledged his emotional state.? And found it hard to see how his views could change after such a striking betrayal.

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It’s worth mentioning one more story of heroism during the catastrophe of October 7th.

On the way to the Nova Festival site – where 300+ revelers were struck down and many more abducted – we passed a nondescript roundabout. ?On Oct 7th, it was a crossing that guided travelers to death in one direction; life in another.

Attentive locals realized that as the invasion unfolded, cars on the highway would be sitting ducks. They deftly navigated their way to a critical crossroads, avoiding Hamas patrols.? This was the roundabout we passed, an intersection near the northeast corner of the Gaza Strip.? To the West, Netiv Hassara, to the South, Nova.?

As masses of cars escaped from the South, many from Nova, these brave souls stood in the roundabout frantically waving their arms and directing traffic to move east – away from the invasion.

Countless lives were saved because of their actions.? Cars from the south that turned West before these individuals arrived drove into the invasion forces and certain death.

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While the community of Kfar Aza (as described in Part 1) was relocated en masse to a single site, the members of Netiv Hassara were spread across a number of hotels in Tel Aviv.? Many have already tried to find more permanent apartments, fragmenting the once tight knit community.

Some may go back, in time.? Others may find it too difficult to return to the place where so much horror occurred.

As our session with Alon and the kibbutz leader ended, we gave them hugs.? One of the older members of our American delegation pulled Alon aside.? This man lost his young son two years ago in a hunting accident.?

In the corner, away from the rest, tears fell.

NEXT – Part 3: Radical Realignment and Resolve

A note on the trip: The experience was organized by the Christian non-profit Passages which brings college students to the Holy Land so they can better understand their faith. The trip agenda included meeting with Members of the Knesset, Israeli Defense Force members, families of hostages / others who were present during the attacks of Oct 7th, West Bank residents, and site visits to attacked kibbutz’s and the Nova festival site.