🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 259, 2023 - June 21, 2024 🎗️

  

🎗️Day 259 that 120 of our hostages in Hamas captivity
**There is nothing more important than getting them home! NOTHING!**

“I’ve never met them,

But I miss them. 

I’ve never met them,

but I think of them every second. 

I’ve never met them,

but they are my family. 

BRING THEM HOME NOW!!!”

There is no victory until all of the hostages are home!

‎אין נצחון עד שכל החטופים בבית

Please note that I have added a section at the bottom of personal stories from October 7 throughout the war

Red Alerts - Missile, Rocket, Drone (UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles), and Terror Attacks and Death Announcements

*10:00pm last night - south - Rockets Ein Hashlosha, Gaza border communities

*11:10pm last night - north - Rockets/missiles Dishon, Malkia

*9:00- south - Rockets Ein Hashlosha, Gaza border communities

*1:45pm- north - hostile aircraft - Arab Al Aramsha

*2:00pm- north -hostile aircraft - Baram

*2:15pm -north -hostile aircraft - Kela

*2:20pm - north -hostile aircraft -  Kela, Sha'al

** The army announced the death of 2 soldiers killed in battle in Gaza

-Reserve First Sergeant Omer Smadga, 25 from Ganot Hadar

-Reserve First Sergeant Saadia Yaakov Derai, 27 from Tel Aviv

Smadga is the son of Oren Smadga, who won an Olympic bronze medal in judo for Israel in 1992. Derai is the son of Laly Derai, a news commentator who previously ran for the Likud primary and works for the Hamaniot nonprofit which aids orphans in Israel.

Their deaths bring the toll of slain troops in the ground offensive against Hamas and in operations on the Gaza border to 314.

Omer Smadga (left), Saadia Yaakov Derai (right)
May their memories forever be a blessing

Hostage Updates 

• Today is Arbel Yehud's 29th birthday

  

  
  

  Arbel Yehud, 28, was taken hostage with her boyfriend, Ariel Cunio, from their Kibbutz Nir Oz home on October 7, when Hamas terrorists launched an attack, killing and kidnapping a quarter of the kibbutz residents.

  Arbel’s brother, Dolev Yehud, was killed on October 7 while defending the kibbutz and his remains were identified on June 3, 2024.

  The Yehud siblings are the third generation of their family living on the kibbutz. Arbel lives on the kibbutz with Ariel and is known as the favorite aunt who loves everything about outer space and astronomy.Her sister-in-law, Sigi, said that Arbel is an aunt who “always comes, always plays, always takes, always cares.”

  “More and more women were released and Arbel was not on the lists,” said Sigi Yehud. “It is important to us that they know that Arbel is there and she needs to return, like all the women and children.”

• Meirav Leshem Gonen, the mother of Romi Gonen, who is being held captive in Gaza, says she has no doubt that her daughter is alive following reports that there may be fewer than 50 hostages still alive in the Strip.

  “People are dying there, it’s already been proven, it’s not something we need the Wall Street Journal for,” Leshem Gonen tells Kan’s Reshet Bet radio.

  She says they last received a sign of life of Romi — who was kidnapped at the Supernova festival — from the hostages who were freed in a deal in late November, “but I know that she’s alive, I have no doubt, these reports don’t bother me in relation to Romi specifically but rather because of the fact that we are all one family.”
  Israel must secure the freedom of the living hostages but also bring back the bodies of those who have been killed for burial in Israel, Leshen Gonen says.

  
  Meirav Leshem-Gonen, mother of Hamas hostage Romi Gonen, speaks about Hamas atrocities on October 7 to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on June 19, 2024. (Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations in Geneva)

  
  Romi Gonen, who was taken captive in Gaza by Hamas terrorists on October 7, as they assaulted the Supernova desert rave (Courtesy)
  Romi Gonen was last heard from at 10:58 on Saturday morning, October 7, as she and her friends tried to escape the Hamas assault on the Supernova music rave in the desert.

Gaza 

• More than 656 metric tons, or 1.4 million pounds, of aid were delivered through the U.S. military-built pier in Gaza on Thursday in the hours after it resumed operations, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder says.

  The pier was re-anchored to the beach in Gaza and started operating Wednesday after the military temporarily removed it due to difficult weather conditions, Ryder says. Aid groups have decried the pier as a distraction that took pressure off Israel to open more land border crossings, which are far more productive.

  Since the pier opened on May 17, more than 4,100 tons, or 9.1 million pounds, of food and aid have been delivered by sea and unloaded in Gaza. However, much of the aid has lingered in the storage area right by the pier, so although it was delivered to Gaza, it has not been distributed.

  Ryder directed questions regarding aid distribution to the United Nations’ World Food Program.

  The UN has suspended cooperation with the US-led pier project since June 9, claiming that the Israeli military used the area around the pier in a hostage rescue that killed more than 270 Palestinians.

  The US and Israeli militaries say no part of the pier was used in the raid. The UN is concerned that any such use — or even a perception of it by fighters and ordinary people in Gaza — makes their continued role in the project untenable.

  At issue is the safety of humanitarian workers, and humanitarian groups’ principles of neutrality, the UN says.

  

• IDF says it struck rocket launcher embedded in ‘humanitarian zone’ for displaced Gazans: A Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket launching site, embedded within a shelter for displaced Palestinians in the Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone” in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza, was struck by a drone yesterday, the military says.

  Before carrying out the airstrike, the IDF said that “much effort was made to reduce the risk of harm to uninvolved [civilians].”

  “Terror organizations continue to place weapons and terror infrastructure in the heart of the civilian population, putting them at risk and using them as a human shield,” the military says in a statement.  The strike comes as troops continue to operate in southern Gaza’s Rafah and in the Netzarim Corridor in the Strip’s center.

• My brother's facebook post: The first person from Hamas that I ever met (in 2006) and the person who opened the doors in Gaza for me to be able to negotiate with Hamas wrote to me just now:

  I am searching and trying to find a way to put pressure on ending the war in a way that ensures an end to the killing and destruction on both sides and the restoration of life according to the two-state solution based on the United Nations Charter and its laws. We are now in the tent in the intense heat and with bombardment scattered around us from land, sea and air, and we are exposed to death every second.
  We hope that this war will end soon, to stop the killing and destruction, that prisoners from the parties will return, and that people will live in security and without aggression in peaceful countries that are viable for their people. link

• In an interview with the Washington-based Punchbowl news site, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lays out what he sees as the future of the Gaza Strip following the end of the war.

  “I think we’re going to have to have sustained demilitarization, which can only be done by Israel against any resurgent terrorist effort,” he says. “But I think there has to be a civilian administration to administer not only the distribution of humanitarian aid but also civil administration. That has to be done, I think best done, with the cooperation of an inter-Arab sponsorship and assistance by Arab countries.”

  In addition, he says, he sees the necessity of “some kind of deradicalization process” to teach Palestinians “a different future than the one of annihilating Israel and killing every Jew on the planet,” as well as a reconstruction effort that would be led by the international community.  link to the Punchbowl article  The Punchbowl article contains a lot more than what The Times of Israel captured above, but here are my remarks about this part. In Hebrew we say "Boker Tov"  Netanyahu (good morning Netanyahu). It is said when someone wakes up to what is happening around them. This is the first time that he is talking about an Arab administration and not a military occupation, although he is is saying this to an English speaking audience and publication and not in Hebrew. He almost always says different things to the different audiences. One may think that his statements are progress but for now, they are nothing but words. There is no plan, no strategy, no talks to move this into the realm of possibilities. In any case, no Arab states will accept this Netanyahu plan as it doesn't include a Palestinian governing body and that is the only kinds that the Arab states will agree to. They would most likely agree to be part of an interim administration and security force together with a Reformed Palestinian Authority for a limited period that would be agreed upon ahead of time and will enable the PA to build the necessary infrastructure to then become the sole governing body until free, open and democratic elections would be held, again at a pre-determined time. Netanyahu is deliberately saying these things to a western English speaking audience because he knows that this audience doesn't have a full picture of all of the things I just mentioned. It is his showmanship to play up that he sees a future for Gaza that will be Arab based, but doesn't provide any plans or details, deliberately, because he doesn't have any. Why should he start to have strategic plans now when he hasn't had a single one throughout the war and throughout most of his premiership. It is much easier for him to show and publicize individual successes and take credit for them while not taking any responsibility for failures. And when there is a strategic plan, he would have to show how he is doing according to a plan, and that would put him in bad light when the plans don't go well. So it is better for him politically just not have any plans, just slogans, and slogans he can change when the winds change.

Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah

• The US is concerned that Israel's air defense systems, including the Iron Dome system, may not withstand the pressure they would face in the event of a full-scale war with Hezbollah. This was stated by three US administration officials to CNN.

  According to the report, the US has expressed its concerns to Israel that the Iron Dome could be "vulnerable" to Hezbollah's extensive weapons arsenal, which includes missiles and drones.

  CNN also reported that Israeli officials told their US counterparts that they plan to "move some resources from southern Gaza to the northern border, as part of preparations for a possible attack against Hezbollah."

  A senior Biden administration official said, "We estimate that at least some Iron Dome batteries will be 'overwhelmed'." An Israeli official said this possibility could occur if Hezbollah launches a high-volume attack using guided and precision weapons that could challenge the defense system.

West Bank

•  Police said Friday that two wanted Palestinians, members of the Islamic Jihad terror group, were killed by officers in the West Bank city of Qalqilya.

  In a statement, police said that one of the wanted Islamic Jihad members was planning to carry out an attack in the area.

  Police said officers from the elite Gideonim unit attempted to arrest the pair, when they shot at the troops. The officers returned fire, killing the terror operatives, the statement said. “Handguns were found on the two terrorists,” the statement said.
  Islamic Jihad did not immediately claim the two men as members.

Politics 

•  Ultra-Orthodox extremists from the so-called Jerusalem Faction are blocking part of Route 4 outside Bnei Brak to demonstrate against the military conscription of Haredi yeshiva students. link With war going on in the south, a potential war in the north, 120 hostages in captivity in Gaza for 259 days, regular soldiers having their service lengthened, reserve soldiers being called up for the 3rd time since October 7, these parasites continue their refusal to serve even a single day. And Netanyahu is agreeing for this to continue in order to keep his coalition together. The army has a desperate need to draft at least 15,000 Haredim in the immediate time frame.

• Eyal Eshel, father of lookout Roni Eshel z"l who fell on October 7 at the Nahal Oz outpost, met today with State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman. Eshel described to the Comptroller the severe failures regarding the lookouts, and said there is critical importance in conducting a comprehensive review by the State Comptroller, as quickly as possible, on both the political and military echelons, to prevent the next disaster and to ensure that responsibility for the failures is implemented. This is in addition to internal investigations and the public demand for establishing a state commission of inquiry.

  The Comptroller clarified that this is one of the main audit topics and said, "In our audit, we keep in mind the fallen lookouts, the soldiers, the hostages, the deceased, and all who were affected. Israeli citizens deserve answers. If they had listened to the lookouts and other entities who warned before October 7, we might have been in a completely different place." However, the Comptroller said that the audit of the IDF and Shin Bet is suspended pending a discussion in the Supreme Court expected to take place in July.a

• The State Department issues a readout of the meeting earlier today between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken with visiting National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, but it’s just a regurgitation of long-used Biden administration talking points regarding the Israel-Hamas war.

  The readout says Blinken “reiterated the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security.”

  Blinken “discussed ongoing efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and secure the release of all hostages.”

  The top US diplomat “emphasized the need to take additional steps to surge humanitarian aid into Gaza and plan for post-conflict governance, security, and reconstruction.”

  “He also underscored the importance of avoiding further escalation in Lebanon and reaching a diplomatic resolution that allows Israeli and Lebanese families to return to their homes,” the US readout says.

• A very interesting opinion piece by Salam Fayyad (Salam Fayyad is a Jordanian–Palestinian politician and economist who served as the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority and the finance minister. He was Finance Minister from June 2002 to November 2005 and from March 2007 to May 2012. Fayyad was Prime Minister between June 2007 and June 2013)
  

  The days that have passed since the United Nations Security Council adopted the vision announced by the US President regarding ending the war that has been raging in Gaza for more than eight months have demonstrated the validity of not counting on an imminent end to this war, despite the enormity of the calamities it has brought, and continues to bring, to the people. The people of Gaza and political and security setbacks that are rare at the regional and international levels. Since, from the beginning, it seemed legitimate to question the possibility of a vision that was completely identical to the Israeli position, according to what was stated by Biden himself, that it would constitute a breakthrough sufficient to raise hope in an imminent end to the war, especially at a time when the Israeli government does not miss any opportunity to emphasize its insistence. To continue its aggressive war until achieving goals whose realism has become questionable even in Israel itself.

   

  It is clear that the successive failure of previous attempts to reach an agreement that would lead to stopping the war and paving the way for a sustainable calm is not due to ignorance of the facts of the matter as much as it is the result of hesitation to accept them or give them the attention they deserve. If this is the case, it is due to the difficulty of accepting these facts by one or more of the parties influencing the course of matters. Below is a brief analytical review of the most prominent of these facts.

   

  First: The illusion of the possibility of eliminating the Hamas movement has been dispelled. It has become widely and increasingly expected that the movement will be an integral part of the political and field scene when the war ends. And since Hamas has succeeded in continuing to withstand for nearly nine months in the face of the tyranny of the Israeli war machine in the Gaza Strip, which the same machine only needed a few hours to tighten control over in 1967, it is almost certain that it will be established, “the next day.” The feeling of believing that she emerged victorious from this war. It is worth noting that this feeling did not arise out of nowhere, but rather began to form from the early stages of the war, when it became clear that the October 7 attack was preceded by careful preparation for a long-term battle. There is no doubt that this matter contributed to enabling Hamas to effectively confront repeated waves of skepticism, locally as well as regionally, about the validity of its decision to launch the aforementioned attack.

   

  Second: Israel's failure to achieve any of its declared goals from the war it launched in the wake of the October 7 attack. Indeed, beyond what was clear from the beginning about the impossibility of eliminating a political movement such as Hamas, today there is no longer much room for belief that Israel will succeed even in simply removing Hamas from power in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas movement, as it was before last October, is still today the most prominent political force in the Gaza Strip, and its political standing is expected to strengthen significantly, at least during the first post-war phase. To demonstrate this, it may suffice to think, even in passing, about the features that are likely to dominate the field scene the “next day.” Perhaps the most prominent features of this scene will be the immediate reappearance of the institutional presence of the Hamas movement, through the deployment of police personnel, and in a gradual manner in other aspects of public administration. However, this should not be understood as assuming that the movement will be able to deal with the urgent requirements for restoring life to the Strip, especially with regard to shelter and reconstruction. This is another difficult fact, but it must be accepted.

   

  Third: Israel’s frantic pursuit of “complete victory” has pushed it into a tunnel of war without an end, or even without any goal that it can continue to try to achieve without incurring additional heavy, and likely permanent, losses on the international scene, due to what resulted from its aggression, and still is, From the systematic destruction of life and its means in the Gaza Strip. It has become clear that Israel's repeated resort to using accusations of anti-Semitism in the face of its increasing accusation of war crimes and genocide has become reprehensible and underestimates, at least by some, the extreme danger of true anti-Semitism.

   

  Fourth: In practice, the banner of Palestinian representation has passed to the Hamas movement. This came against the backdrop of the failure of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s bet on the political path it adopted in 1988 as a way to achieve the rights of the Palestinian people, especially with regard to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the borders of June 4, 1967, and its involvement in a negotiating process that is not based on acknowledgment of any of these. Rights under the Oslo Accords. Not only that, but this process established a deep rift in the Palestinian political system, and was accompanied by Israeli failure and inertia in transforming the framework of self-rule represented by the Palestinian Authority into an empowering tool for the Palestinian people in their struggle to obtain their rights. Against the backdrop of the consequent erosion of the PLO’s representative capacity, the position of self-distancing that was actually adopted by the organization’s leadership in the wake of the October 7 attack deprived it of any influential representative role, whether at the local or regional and international levels. This unfortunate end would not have happened if the organization’s leadership had taken the initiative to expand its representation base to include all the influential political factions and forces, most notably Hamas and Islamic Jihad, especially since these two movements announced, along with other forces, their agreement to join the PLO without insisting on changing its political program. As well as the formation of a national consensus government for a transitional period ending with general elections. If this had actually been done, it would have made the possibility of the National Authority assuming its responsibilities in the Gaza Strip an additional tool in pushing to spare Gaza and its people from the further scourges of Israel’s aggression and its destructive war.

   

  Fifth: It is extremely naive to even think that reforming the Palestinian Authority in the technical sense, despite its importance and necessity, can replace the political reform required to enable the Authority to become a symbol of national consensus that enables it to exercise its duties in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank alike. If it is not surprising that the influential powers on the international scene, led by the United States, ignore this fact in order to avoid publicly acknowledging the necessity of not excluding Hamas, in particular, and other political forces opposed to the political program of the PLO, in general, then it is not at all acceptable to accept this logic. Twisted by the political entity that is supposed to be the unifying home for all Palestinians and their only legitimate representative. Then, and there is no claim of innocence in this question, what happened for the world to discover only after the seventh of last October that the Palestinian Authority needs to improve its administrative and technical efficiency? Related to this question, of course, is the question of what prompted the authority, after claiming the ideality of its administration, to adopt the international call for renewal and reform and change its government to achieve this. What's the point in any of this?

   

  Sixth: There is no realistic or logical option to deal with the situation in the Gaza Strip other than the National Authority assuming responsibility for governing it. However, the mere fact that this option is realistic, or even that it is a national necessity to achieve the unity of the nation and its institutions, does not make it automatically implementable. It is also not at all acceptable to allow even the thought of imposing it by force, especially since achieving national consensus on it passes through the gateway to enabling the PLO to be in deed, and not just in word, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. It is a matter of regret that the continued ignoring of this fact and the reluctance to act responsibly regarding it has opened the door to discussing proposals and alternatives for dealing with the situation in Gaza, united by Israeli political thought that aims to keep the Gaza Strip separate from any unifying Palestinian entity. In addition, what most of these alternatives are based on employing an international administration supported by a multilateral military force in preparation for establishing a local administration in Gaza involves a lot of naivety, if not extreme danger. Which countries are prepared to send their forces to the Gaza Strip without an official invitation from an inclusive Palestinian framework that includes the Hamas movement, or, in the absence of that, at least with the movement’s approval? Then how does keeping the Gaza Strip separate from the West Bank, even for what is said to be temporary but is likely to be otherwise, is consistent with a goal whose importance Arab and world leaders do not miss an opportunity to emphasize, which is the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian land occupied since 1967? ?

   

  Seventh: The return of the issue of finding a sustainable solution to the Palestinian issue, after many years of revolving in one vicious circle after another, to the spotlight and global attention, at both the civil and official levels, constitutes a qualitatively positive development that must be built upon and benefited from. There is also great positivity in the position that has become the subject of an Arab consensus regarding the necessity of there being an irreversible and irreversible path to a process that leads to the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. In order to translate this position into a plan and program of action, urgent work must be done to define the basic components of such a path, while taking into account from the beginning that there is no point in trying to obtain Israeli approval, neither on the aforementioned Arab position nor on its highest components, at the present time, or Even in the foreseeable future. How can the current Israeli government be expected to commit to something that completely contradicts its political program that strongly opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state, no matter how ridiculous or weak it may be, and at a time when some of its members declare their intention to eliminate even what remains of national authority, several governments in Israel have intended to weaken it so that it does not become... A day for a future country? However, this does not mean at all abandoning the idea of developing a Palestinian action program that enjoys Arab support for a political move capable of enabling the Palestinian people to achieve their national aspirations. Quite the opposite.

   

  As a first step towards establishing a national action program with the desired specifications for the next stage, it may be useful to actively seek international recognition of the national rights of all the Palestinian people, including specifically the right to establish an independent state with full sovereignty over the entire Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, and including This recognition is in a UN resolution issued by the UN Security Council. As for negotiating with Israel on any issue related to the embodiment of the desired state, the initiation of this should be conditional upon a prior official Israeli acknowledgment of the Palestinian right to establish this state, as well as the other national rights of the Palestinians as a people, and as an issue whose roots go back to the Zionist project’s denial of the reality of the existence of the Palestinian people. It should be noted that crystallizing a Palestinian political vision like this makes it possible to immediately begin unifying the Palestinian leadership within the framework of the Liberation Organization without any need to change any component of the Palestinian political system to change its political vision. It is not possible, especially in light of the failure of the Oslo negotiating process, to continue to accept the condition that all Palestinians accept the form of any solution to the Palestinian issue that is not based on Israel’s prior recognition of the national rights of the Palestinian people.

   

  It is clear that it is not possible to advance towards adopting a comprehensive Palestinian national vision that would pave the way for its Arab adoption and the effort to consolidate it internationally without beginning to achieve leadership unity within the framework of the PLO. In the absence of this, it will not be possible to deal with any of the difficult facts related to the tragic situation in Gaza, and Gaza, which has long been described as the largest prison in the world, will likely become its largest camp for decades on end. This is a difficult truth that should never be accepted. link
  
  My brother's FB post in response to Salam Fayyad:
  

  Dr. Salam Fayadh (#Salam_Fayadh) writes in Foreign Affairs: The leadership of the Palestinian National Movement should unite under the auspices of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. In order to do so, the Palestinian Liberation Organization should accept Hamas, rather than other remote important factions, to its membership. Doing so is essential to enable the Palestinian Authority to play its rightful role in governing both Gaza and the West Bank - in line with the Palestinian Authority’s mandate when it was established in 1994.

  My answer: Yes Dr. Fayadh, Palestinian unity is very important but it is time for the Palestinian National Movement to grow into the country you want to live in. In order to do so, the PA must be the framework for the Palestinians that decisively declare that there is no more armed struggle on the strategic map to end the occupation and achieve liberation and dignity. Yes Hamas should join the Palestinian Liberation Organization after they receive their weapons. Political Islam is legitimate but it is not an armed militia that is not subject to civil government authority. Palestinians have to say: No Lebanon in Palestine. Hezbollah is not a model for Palestine. With liberty and liberty comes responsibility and being a welcome member of the nations. And no one will pay for the rebuilding of Gaza if Hezbollah is the model that Fayadh and Hamas want to adopt. link

The Region

•    Yemen's Houthi rebels released a video on June 19 purportedly showing their attack which sank a Greek-owned transport ship in the Red Sea. Houthis claim to have employed "new weapons" to target and sink the cargo ship MV Tutor. The newly released Houthi video shows two large explosions on a bulk carrier at sea. A small boat can be seen approaching the vessel in the Houthi video, that also captured the moment of impact. Maritime Security firm Ambrey described the attacks as being carried out with a 16 to 23 feet fishing boat that was made of fiberglass or wood. video of the ship blowing up

Personal Stories

"I entered the house where the couple Sivan and Naor were murdered in Kibbutz Kfar Aza - and I came out a different person"

Sivan Elkabetz and Naor Hasidim were brutally murdered in their small apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7th. Sivan's parents, Anat and Shimon Elkabetz, chose to open the apartment to visitors, to allow the public to experience the horror of their last moments. Visitors say they had a powerful experience there that they will never forget. Avner Zvieli, a journalism student at Sapir College and himself a kibbutznik from the area, documented the moving visit and conversations with the bereaved parents in a travel journal format.

In one of our news site's editorial meetings at Sapir College, the desk head asked who wanted to write about the memorial project run by Shimon and Anat Elkabetz in memory of their daughter Sivan (23), who was a first-year computer science student at our college and was murdered with her partner, Naor Hasidim (23), in their apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Aza.

Complete silence fell over the classroom. Everyone was afraid to deal with this complex and difficult subject, and were reluctant to interview a couple who had lost their most precious in the deadliest terrorist attack Israel has ever known. After deliberation, I decided to take on the challenge and took the assignment upon myself.

"Reminiscent of the gas chambers." The entrance to the house of Sivan Alkabats and the late Naor Hasidim in Kibbutz Kfar Gaza (Avner Tzviali)

"We could not protect our children." Shimon Elkabatz and his late daughter Sivan, t(photo: private)

"They made us an Auschwitz"

I assumed that making contact with Anat and Shimon would not be easy, but to my surprise, there was an immediate response from them, and we arranged for me to come interview Shimon in Kfar Aza and talk to Anat by phone. On Wednesday morning, they prepared me for the complex emotional experience. A lecturer in the communications department who had participated in the tour of Sivan's house noted to me: "The feelings are chilling. It reminds one of the experience of the gas chambers." I set out from my home in Kibbutz Negba, filled with thoughts about the lecturer's words. As I got closer, my heart began to pound harder.

11:22 - I arrived at the entrance to the kibbutz, where security forces are still constantly present, guarding the area since October 7th. The guards stopped me on the side and asked me to wait there for Shimon. I had a brief casual conversation with one of the guards, who seemed to be around my age. I asked where he was from and how long he had been mobilized. "I'm from Kibbutz Mefalsim," he said. "Until recently I was living in the center with all the evacuated community members, but I've had enough. I returned to the area and since then I've been here, on guard duty."

11:58 - Shimon arrived in his car at the kibbutz gate, leading a convoy of vehicles that had joined the tour he was guiding. I drove with the convoy to the assembly point, on the grass lawn that the few remaining landscapers had returned to tend in the kibbutz. "We are just a dot in our story as a Jewish people. The hatred towards us is so great, so monstrous just because we are Jews," Shimon began the tour and added: "We couldn't protect our children. On October 7th, the entire country was in complete blindness. They made us an Auschwitz."

The bed under which Sivan and Naor hid and the remains of the bullets that penetrated the house (Avner Tzvieli)

Against the background of the bullet-holed wall in Sivan's house: the recording of the last WhatsApp conversation with her father during the attack (Avner Tzviali)

Photo taken by the late Sivan: Shabbat dinner hosted by She and Naor (with the necklace in the middle) together with their friends (family album)

12:30 - We arrived at the area of the "Young Generation" neighborhood, to the house where Sivan and Naor lived. As someone who has lived in Kibbutz Negba all his life and rents an apartment in the young people's neighborhood there, the experience, especially inside the house, was particularly overwhelming and difficult for me. It's hard to comprehend the sights of the messy apartment, the bullet-riddled walls, an exact documentation of the apartment as they saw it when they entered after the massacre. In the background, a video is played and Anat's voice is heard, trying to describe what happened in the neighborhood during those hours, and in the center - a transcript of Shimon's last WhatsApp conversation with Sivan, displayed on the wall. This in itself is a painful punch in the gut for any parent, and it left hardly a dry eye.

All of this made me ponder how the disaster that happened here on October 7th could have occurred a bit north of there, in my kibbutz, in the neighborhood I love so much and am so connected to. This thought didn't let go throughout the entire tour. I entered the house as one person - and left another. The eyes, and also the imagination that worked tirelessly, experienced the pain, sadness, and anger with great intensity. I doubt I could have felt this if I hadn't visited the place. I understood what the lecturer meant - it definitely felt like a visit to the gas chambers.

13:00 - The tour ended, and the conversation with Shimon Elkabetz begins as we return towards the starting point. On the way, we were suddenly stopped by a woman from Kibbutz Yad Mordechai: "You can't really comfort," she said to Shimon, who nodded his head in pain. It was a sad conversation between two hurting and concerned people, trying to cling to fragments of optimism.

"It was clear to us that the house should be open for visits." A group with visitors outside the home of the late Sivan (Avner Tzviali)

Kfar Gaza abductees still held captive by Hamas: Keith Segal, Doron Steinbrecher, Gali and Ziv Berman and Emily Tahila Damari (Avner Tzvieli)

Seven months after the disaster, is it possible to return to any routine out of the terrible morning?

Shimon: "No. Although I work, come to give tours in the kibbutz and am with family members, you can't really go back to what was on October 6th.

"On October 7th, we were besieged from six-thirty in the morning in the safe room, at our home, less than a kilometer away from Sivan's house, and not far from the homes of our two other children, Noa and Guy, who were together with their partners and children.

"The exhibit was born out of necessity. The documentation on Anat's phone served as a mediator for the sights she saw there," the father adds. "Two weeks after the murder, when ZAKA volunteers cleaned the house of the massacre remnants, we realized that people coming to the kibbutz were leaving shocked. As a result, Anat said she wanted to place in Sivan's apartment pictures and material she had photographed and documented from our visit there, so that visitors to the place could experience the magnitude of the horror and also spread and tell.

"For both of us, it was clear from the first moment that Sivan's house should be open for visits. That people would see with their own eyes, experience what happened there and ask themselves how in such a small apartment, two young people who had their whole lives ahead of them, were slaughtered in such a cruel way."

What kind of girl was Sivan?

"Sivan was our youngest child. I don't remember a family event where she wasn't present, always with us. In the mornings she would come to take food I had prepared for her for her studies, and in the afternoons I would sit with her on assignments she had to submit. She was a magnet. Beyond external beauty, she had a very, very rare inner beauty."

A song about longing, guilt, and anger

Elkabetz is a well-known figure in Israeli media. A respected journalist, former commander of Army Radio, served as CEO of Radio Tel Aviv, manager of Kol Israel and deputy CEO of radio at the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, and a communications lecturer at Sapir College. He chose to eulogize his daughter with a song he wrote, called "Never Again."

Here's the translation of the song:

The scariest thing is the longing

How you weren't with her

She just wanted you to say everything will be okay

Never again, our parents told us

Never again, our leaders promised us

Never again, we told our children

Only the world is no longer for us

(From "Never Again" written by Elkabetz in memory of his daughter Sivan)*

"I wrote it during the shiva. I felt then, and even more now, the loss, the longing, the guilt feelings and the great anger I have towards the political and military leadership," he says. "I sent the sketch to some friends from the industry, including journalist Amir Ben-David, a member of the Avtipus band, and after a few weeks he sent me a studio version. I listened to the song non-stop. They managed to turn it into a painful document that touches the emotion with the highest intensity."

**"Feels like a limb has been cut off from my body"**

link to the song performed by Avtipus

I spoke with Anat Elkabetz on the phone. She works in art therapy, and she's the one who led the initiative for the chilling and so important exhibit to commemorate her daughter.

"This is a reality we totally didn't expect," she says, "but from the very fact that we're here and alive, I have the ability to decide where I channel the difficult and painful feelings and the indescribable sadness. I feel as if a limb has been cut off from my body."

**How did you understand that Sivan was no longer alive?**

"When they came to evacuate us from the house, at 3:00 AM between Saturday and Sunday, I objected. I asked where my daughter was. On Sunday afternoon, after that Saturday, a police officer informed us that on the night of the evacuation, they had removed two bodies from Sivan's apartment. There, at that moment, the realization fell on us that she and Naor were no longer alive."

Shimon and Anat Elkebats (right) with their four children: Guy, Noa, Nadav - and the late Sivan (family photo)

**"If we don't show what happened, how will they know? Who will see?"**

"The first time I returned to her house, after the funeral and shiva, I went inside and was simply shocked by the sights. I was surprised in a way that's hard to describe. I didn't imagine that this is what I was going to see," the mother shares. "As someone who deals with art on a daily basis, I just took out my phone and started photographing and documenting hundreds of pictures and videos. At first, I had no idea what I would do with it. I was there for a few hours, and I couldn't leave the place. The reality there surpasses any imagination.

"I think it's very important to hold the exhibit first of all for us, as Israeli society and as Jews. It's clear to me that Sivan and Naor were murdered only because they were Jews. This is also true for the other 1,500 murdered," she adds. "If we don't show what happened - how will they know? Who will see? People hear about the tour from the media or by word of mouth and simply come - and the most prominent response we hear, which keeps repeating itself, is that 'seeing with your own eyes is not like seeing through the media'."

**How do you cope with the loss?**

Shimon: "There's no magic cure for this. Anyone who tells me that time will do its thing - I'm not in that place yet. On the contrary, every day that passes is harder. My meetings with the family and grandchildren and guiding the groups give me some relief and a little comfort, but not more than that. I'm very sad and in pain."

Anat: "I have no tools to deal with the loss. Life is stronger than anything else. Sivan was part of my soul. She simply lives with me all the time. I'm busy showing, commemorating, talking and telling out of the feeling that she's with me all the time. I really feel that she's with me every day."

Against the background of public calls and protests, I asked the bereaved parents if this is an appropriate time to deal with politics.

Anat: "Dealing with politics doesn't interest me. I want to continue to live and bring Sivan to life. This will always be my top priority. Of course, I hope all the hostages will return home. The government and the army weren't with us, they abandoned us. On that Saturday, from six-thirty in the morning, there was a collection of failures, one after another. I told the soldiers who came to evacuate us 'take care of yourselves, because the army isn't protecting you'."

Shimon: "We will need to do soul-searching as great as the failure, atrocities and massacre we went through. But in the same breath, I also emphasize that this will only be done after all the hostages are returned, and the last of the regular and reserve soldiers return home. It's clear to everyone that those responsible will have to account for what happened here on that Saturday, both in the political and military leadership."

"It is clear to everyone that those responsible will have to be held accountable, in the political and military leadership." Alkabatz as commander of the GLA (Photo: Israel Yosef)

**"Too early to know if we'll return"**

Shimon and Anat Elkabetz were born and raised in Beer Sheva. Over the years and with the expansion of the family, they moved to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Ashdod, and in the last five years they built their dream house where they lived in Kfar Aza, intending to settle in the place. The attack on October 7th shuffled the cards.

Anat: "The choice to move to live in the kibbutz came from a Zionist place, out of love. We really enjoyed it there. Sivan and Noa also came with us to the kibbutz out of desire. As residents in the Gaza envelope, they sold us a story of security that exploded in our face on October 7th. We paid a heavy price - we paid the price of our lives. In retrospect, we wouldn't have come to live there. It's too early to know if we'll return."

Shimon: "A few months ago I would have said certainly yes. Today I don't know, we're in great deliberation. On one hand we really want to return. On the other hand, we have another daughter we want to be together with and it's a difficult decision. We have an option for interim housing in Kibbutz Ruhama."

**Is there a personal message you'd like to share?**

Shimon: "The Sapir Academic College, located in an area under fire, will need to recalculate its course regarding its rehabilitation in order to attract new students to study there. In this surreal reality, it's not taken for granted that it should provide tools for so many young people. I'm a great believer in our renewal as a people, and just as we've risen from the biggest crises and reinvented ourselves, I hope this will happen now too."

Anat: "I want to ask us, Israeli society, to be more inclusive, tolerant, to accept each other. To understand that we are Jews and in this name we were murdered. That we went through another Holocaust here, which unlike Germany happened to us here, in our home - with a state and a flag and a nation and an army. We need to ask ourselves as a society why this happened. Salvation will not come from Hamas. The answers are within us, as a society and as a people."

***Avner Zvieli is a journalism student in the Communication Department of Sapir College and a writer for the Spirala website.***  link

Acronyms and Glossary

COGAT - Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories

ICC - International Criminal Court in the Hague

IJC - International Court of Justice in the Hague

MDA - Magen David Adom - Israel Ambulance Corp

PA - Palestinian Authority - President Mahmud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen

PMO- Prime Minister's Office

UAV - Unmanned Aerial vehicle, Drone. Could be used for surveillance and reconnaissance, or be weaponized with missiles or contain explosives for 'suicide' explosion mission

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