On September 6, journalist Amir Tibon was wearing jeans and sandals and was happy with his life in Nahal Oz, a kibbutz located just two kilometers from the border with Gaza. In the shade of one of the few trees in that desert landscape, Tibon, diplomatic correspondent for the progressive newspaper Haaretz, explained his vision of the Palestinian conflict to a group of journalists from European media, including La Vanguardia. In the background, the same fence that was torn down by Hamas terrorists on Saturday and, further in the background, the buildings of the Strip.
“I see Gaza every day but many Israelis don't remember that Gaza exists,” said this former correspondent in Washington, critical of Netanyahu and in favor of negotiations with the Palestinians. “80% of the kibbutzim in this area vote center-left,” he explained, longing for the not-so-distant times when Israelis went to the beaches of Gaza and Palestinians went to buy products from the kibbutz farms.
At 34 years old, Tibon, co-author of the book on Mahmud Abas The last Palestinian, was happy with the life choice that, together with his wife Miri, had taken him nine years ago from Tel Aviv to Nahal Oz, just after the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas. And this despite the constant mortar attacks by the fundamentalist militia. He had fallen in love with that area after visiting it while covering the conflict.
“Living here near the border with Gaza is a very different way of life,” he said. “A mortar projectile takes seven seconds to cross the border and normally cannot be neutralized by anti-aircraft systems,” he said. For him it was normal to have to “protect with his body” his two daughters, Carmel and Galia – aged one and three – as soon as they heard the whistle of the bomb. Tibon said that the residents of the kibbutz have developed a “community resilience.”
A month later, happiness turned into sadness. “We always had dreams. But on October 7 we woke up to a nightmare,” Tibon wrote in Haaretz the day after the Hamas attack. The journalist explained in first person the odyssey he experienced that day with his family. Their lives were saved thanks to his father, a retired Army general, but many of their kibbutz neighbors died.
“We thought it would be another of those days we are so used to,” Amir said. But he was wrong, it wasn't just going to be some mortar bombs. The four took refuge in the safe room that all houses have – built with concrete and double doors – which in their home is the girls' room and at that time they were still sleeping. From there they heard “sirens and explosions and “machine gun shots near our house.”
Then “we heard screams in Arabic and immediately knew what was happening: it was our worst nightmare. “Armed Hamas militiamen had broken into our kibbutz and were literally at the door, while we were locked inside with our two daughters.”
“Israel poured tons of concrete into the ground (to prevent tunnel construction) and Hamas simply broke down the fence above with tractors,” Tibon wrote. “The terrorists moved freely and broke into houses,” he continued. The explosions woke up our girls. We explained to them that we had to be quiet, lie on the bed and wait.” The power had gone out and they were in the dark and without food.
Before his cell phone went off, Amir was able to warn two colleagues who cover military issues at Haaretz and his father, Noam Tibon, a 62-year-old retired general, of his situation, who assured him that he would come to rescue them. The soldier could not convince his wife, Gali, not to accompany him, so they took the car in Tel Aviv and headed south but had to deviate several times from their objective to help in other kibbutzim.
The mother took several injured people to the hospital. The father took the weapon and helmet of one of the wounded and joined the troops to liberate other kibbutzim until he reached his son's kibbutz, accompanied by a soldier whom he had convinced to accompany him.
Upon entering Nahal Oz, they joined a paratrooper special forces commando, who went house to house confronting the terrorists. They killed the six militiamen who were around her son's house and then one of the girls heard her voice: “It's grandfather!” “For the first time since the morning we all burst into tears,” Amir wrote.
“But the moments of joy were short-lived. As more and more families came to our house, we learned about the atrocities that happened that day,” he said, before closing the chronicle in which he is the protagonist with a devastating criticism of Netanyahu's government.
“Something went wrong in this war. The terms of the agreement between us and the State have always been clear: we protect the border and the State protects us. We heroically kept our end of the bargain. The State of Israel did not do its part for many of our dear friends and neighbors on this dark day of October 7,” Amir Tibon concluded.
