Here are two stories of survival from Kibbutz Be-eri on October 7th. These are relatives of one of our own here at Inland Empire For Israel. So this is personal.
His Granddaughter's Reflections on surviving that day
PRICES FOR SLAVERY
Six months
Six months that was taken away from me, my husband, my children, my parents, my
sisters, my friends and my freedom friends.
For six months I open my eyes every time in another place and not in my home.
For six months I've been trying to understand why I was neglected.
Six months that I've been trying with all my power to give freedom to my little children.
In the six months that have passed since the 7th of October we have already passed six months and six flights.
My grandfather and grandmother from Makimi Kibbutz Bari.
the third generation of Kibbutz, where I was born and raised.
On Friday, Friday in October, we celebrated with a great and happy event, 77 years since
the founding of the kibbutz.
The next day, Saturday, on the seventh of October, six months ago, at 6:25, when the
attack began, we were christened in our home, I, and our three children who were then 6
and a half years old, four and a half and 2.5 years old.
13 hours, no electricity, food, water and communication with the outside world.
13 hours of silence and fear.
If someone cries loudly or talks, they will hear us and come to hurt us (so we also said to
the children).
13 hours we heard, smelled and saw death through the door.
My husband and I looked at each other helplessly and without words of goodbye.
It was not possible for us to talk to each other while endless terrorists entered our house,
robbed, broke, destroyed and tried to burn us alive.
After about 13 hours, three soldiers arrived and took us out of the house under heavy
gunfire, when Molotov bottles were flying past us.
We ran barefoot, with partial pajamas, to a neighbor's house where we reunited with two
other families and hid there for another two hours.
At 2100, rescuers arrived and evacuated us in a small army jeep.
Five adults and nine children, shocked and screaming.
We arrived in an open space outside the Kibbutz Gate.
There we lay on the dusty ground for another two and a half hours in the open air under
constant gunfire.
Sirens and cries of dozens of Kibbutz residents, who did not understand what happened
here in the last hours and what became the fate of their loved ones.
At first they told us that they were waiting for empty buses and trucks, to come get us out of
the kibbutz area.
At 23:30, when they realized that no one could, and was not willing to approach the area,
military forces that fought in the Kibbutz area arrived and asked dozens of people to line up
and start getting on the military jeeps, when there is priority for families with young children
and the elderly.
We got on an army jeep with an open top and so we drove all the way to the Antivot when
dozens of rockets were flying above us, and on the sides of the road, all the way, burned
and upside down cars, smoke and bodies.
Two buses came to Netivot and from there we were evacuated to a hotel in the Dead Sea.
We got to the hotel only at 2 in the morning.
Just a day later, when we left the hotel room I started hearing from my friends how their
husbands and the father of their young children were murdered
How many of my age, became orphans from two parents in an instant, on abducted parents
and siblings or children burned alive.
And about what happened beyond the walls of our house.
We are a row of four adjacent houses, which share common walls.
In the first house, zero-range shooting, murdered, father and his 10-month-old baby
daughter.
The second house was burned, and by a miracle the woman where she lived was saved.
The third house, our home.
And in the fourth home, an elderly woman's caretaker was brutally murdered.
What our children and we heard that day - I cannot describe.
But close your eyes for a moment!
Now imagine one of the walls in your house.
- You hear what's happening beyond the wall, right?!
Especially if someone screams from pain and shock...
So just like that. These were the walls of my house on 7.10.
We stayed for a month in a hotel in the Dead Sea.
We arrived with nothing.
In the beginning, it was not possible to enter the kibbutz and get things out of the house.
A month we waited for documents and passports so we could leave Israel to a quiet and
safe place.
We arrived in Denver in early November.
This is an opportunity for me, to thank my family here, to Petah and Hadar for opening their
home to us during the first month.
For the community, on the broad of the heart, from giving clothes, meals, educational
frameworks for children and endless support.
I left behind, refugees in their country, parents, three sisters, nephews - one of whom I
haven't met yet and another will be born soon.
Uncles and cousins. The extended family.
You are my grandmother, and my grandfather, who is a survivor of two worlds and reminds
me in every conversation.
May we no longer hug.
The only thing left for me to ask-
Freedom for the kidnapped and their families now!!!
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