‘We will return to Be’eri’ - blood stains and bullet holes still there as Israeli kibbutz rebuilds

Record ID: 1845595

  • Title: ‘We will return to Be’eri’ - blood stains and bullet holes still there as Israeli kibbutz rebuilds
  • Date: 3rd October 2024
  • Summary: KIBBUTZ BE’ERI, ISRAEL (RECENT – SEPTEMBER 2024) (REUTERS) OCT.7 VICTIM AVIDA BACHAR WALKING INTO HIS HOUSE, CHARRED WALLS AND DEBRIS BACHAR LOOKING AT WINDOW GLASS RIDDLED WITH BULLET HOLES BACHAR STANDING LOOKING, DEBRIS ON FLOOR/ FAMILY KITCHEN, VOICE OF BACHAR SAYING (Hebrew): “As they say, once there was life in here.” AVIDA BACHAR STANDING INSIDE SAFE ROOM BY DOOR RIDDLED WITH BULLET HOLES, DESCRIBING THE SCENE ON THE MORNING OF OCT.7 HAMAS ATTACK, SAYING (English): “And I’m holding the handle really close to the wall, and Carmel (Bachar’s son) he’s holding with me from the other side of the frame, like that. And these here, it’s Carmel’s blood. He’s holding like that and these bullets hit his arm, both arms.” BACHAR POINTING TO BULLET HOLES IN DOOR/ AVIDA BACHAR SAYING (English): “Maybe these bullets took my legs and this one took my arm, here”/ BACHAR PULLING UP SLEEVE
  • Embargoed: 17th October 2024 09:56
  • Keywords: gaza hamas hostage israel kibbutz oct 7 october palestine
  • Location: KIBBUTZ BE'ERI, HATZERIM, ISRAEL/UNKNOWN LOCATION
  • City: KIBBUTZ BE'ERI, HATZERIM, ISRAEL/UNKNOWN LOCATION
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Middle East
  • Reuters ID: LVA001262909092024RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: These are the holes made by the Hamas bullets that cost Avida Bachar his leg and injured his arm. The day was October 7, 2023. The time: just after sunrise, the place: Be’eri a sleepy, sun-kissed Israeli kibbutz, just 4.5 kilometres from the Gaza strip.
    Bachar lost his leg but survived. Other holes in the same door are a reminder of those that killed his wife and son, whose blood can still be seen on the door of the safe room they sheltered in.
    By the time the sun set, 1,200 Israelis were dead. A further 250 were taken hostage by the gunmen who burst out of Gaza that day, marking the start to a conflict that has brought Israel to the brink of war with Iran. Over 41,000 Palestinians have died since then.
    “First of all they shoot, second – they burn, and when you jump out the window – they kill you outside. That’s the system. And heavy smoke getting into the safe room, they burn the house,” Bachar recalled in an interview to Reuters on the anniversary of Oct.7.
    That fateful morning Bachar’s family sheltered in a safe room designed to withstand shrapnel from falling rockets but not bullets. Israel was emerging from a Jewish holiday.
    Bacahr's wife Dana and their 15-year-old son Carmel were killed. His 14-year old daughter Hadar was injured, but survived the attack with him. Everything since then, he says, is a reminder of his loved ones’ absence.
    “The longing is strong, very strong.”
    Six months on, Bachar is back in Be’eri, determined to rebuild his entire community and getting used to his prosthetic leg.
    “The kibbutz is back. The kibbutz has been back a long time ago,” he says. “We understand that our living and our work is part of our rehabilitation, and we’re moving on full force.”
    Be'eri was established in 1946 as a collective, egalitarian farming community. Its main source of income these days is its print shop.
    The tight-knit community of 1,000 lost one in ten of its residents that day. Hamas militants set fire to houses, broke into homes, and killed. Men, women and children were abducted and carted back to the Gaza strip.
    Bachar is bitter at years neglect by Israeli governments he says failed to tackle the threats from Gaza. Persistent Rocket fire from Gaza and exploding kites that set fields ablaze made life hard for residents.
    In footage filmed by Reuters in 2018, Bachar can be seen walking on his two legs, extinguishing fire from exploding kite sent from Gaza. At the time, he called it ‘pure terror.’
    Most residents of Be’eri who were evacuated in the aftermath of Oct.7. But Bachar stayed to farm and sustain what is left of it.
    “What’s left for us is to move ahead. We have no other choice. Continue life and rebuild everything from scratch. And we will. Be’eri will be rebuilt anew. We’ll destroy 150 houses, we’ll crush them and we’ll build new.”
    While Bachar is in Be’eri, daughter Hadar is staying with her aunt at the temporary residence being built for the community in Hatzerim, a kibbutz around 18 miles away.
    Close to 70% of kibbutz members have moved there since the start of the school year in September, said the community manager Iftah Celniker.
    Keeping the community together while uprooted has been their main challenge, said Celniker. But he’s hopeful the spirit of the community will make it possible.
    Homes need to be torn down and rebuilt. Celniker says a return is still months away.
    "It will take time not only to build Be'eri but to build the confidence of it being a safe haven," he said.
    Be’eri is being rebuilt. But 10 of its members are still held hostage. Some have returned, dead.
    Carmel Gat, 40, was found dead in a Hamas tunnel in southern Gaza, along with five other hostages last August. Militants killed them shortly before they were found by Israeli forces, Israeli authorities said. While alive, she had helped other hostages with Yoga and guided meditation.
    A banner with a photo of a smiling Carmel Gat hangs over the wreckage of her home. Her younger brother Or, sifts through belongings in the ravaged house.
    Outside a pomegranate - a traditional food of the Jewish new year festival that begins on Thursday (October 3) - hangs from a tree, with no one to pick it.
    Despite his family's ordeal, Or says he still dreams of raising a family in Be'eri.
    “Right now when the situation is a lot more harder so it makes me want to come home and try to make it better for me to live here and for my community.”
    (Production: Eli Berlzon, Ilan Rosenberg, Michal Yaakov Ithaki, Nicoco Chan, Avivit Delgoshen)
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