After I first heard that Israeli civilians have been being massacred on the nation’s Gaza border, I considered my good friend Amir Tibon. Amir is an exceptionally gifted journalist who’s fluent in Hebrew, Arabic, and English, and who has devoted his life and expertise to humanistic protection of what can typically be a dehumanizing area. His writing consists of award-winning reporting on efforts to attain a two-state resolution and a biography of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
On Sunday, I didn’t know whether or not he was alive or useless.
That’s as a result of Tibon lives in Nahal Oz, a small neighborhood bordering Gaza that has no Iron Dome missile protection to guard it. On Saturday, it got here beneath mortar hearth from above and was invaded on the bottom by Hamas terrorists. Throughout their incursion into Israel, they murdered greater than 900 Israelis whereas brutalizing and kidnapping many others, most of them civilians. The loss of life toll is constant to rise.
Tibon and his household survived the indiscriminate slaughter, however solely after enduring a horrifying ordeal. Simply earlier than he put his two younger daughters to mattress tonight, we spoke about what occurred, how he was saved, why he thinks Israel arrived at this level, and what he want to see from the worldwide neighborhood within the days forward. Our dialog has been edited and condensed for readability.
Yair Rosenberg: What does your life appear to be proper now?
Amir Tibon: I’m pleased to be alive. I’m pleased my household is alive. I’m staying with my prolonged household. I’m frightened sick about associates and neighbors who have been injured or kidnapped into Gaza. And I’m frightened about my nation.
Rosenberg: As a religiously observant Jew, I don’t use electronics or entry the web on Jewish holidays or the Sabbath, so by the point I logged on after two days offline, you had posted that you just have been protected and shared the harrowing story about what you and your loved ones skilled. Are you able to speak about what you endured?
Tibon: I’m pleased that you just missed the occasions as they have been occurring, as a result of it was a darkish day, actually the worst day within the historical past of the state of Israel. It’s Saturday, October 7. We’re in mattress, sleeping. I reside with my spouse and two younger daughters in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. It’s a small neighborhood, 500 individuals, positioned instantly on Israel’s border with Gaza. An exquisite place, very resilient, very brave individuals, with a really robust sense of neighborhood and togetherness. But it surely’s Saturday, six within the morning, and we hear a really acquainted sound: the sound of a mortar about to blow up. It’s like a whistle.
My spouse, Miri, instantly pushes me. We run from our bed room to what we name the protected room. In each home in our neighborhood and different communities alongside the border with Gaza, there’s a room that’s constructed of very robust concrete that may face up to a direct hit from a mortar or a rocket. And in most households, that’s the place they put the children to sleep each evening. So we run to the protected room the place our two daughters are: Galia is three and a half years outdated; Carmel is one and a half years outdated.
They don’t know that something is occurring. We shut the door, and we wait. I imply, that is one thing we’re accustomed to. If you reside on the border with Gaza, assaults like this occur every so often. You wait typically an hour, you pack your baggage in the meantime, and when there’s a break of some minutes, you simply shove the children within the automotive and also you go away from the border towards a safer place.
However this time, as we have been packing, I heard probably the most chilling noise I’ve heard in my life. Computerized gunfire within the distance. First I’m listening to this gunfire from the fields. However then I hear it from the street, then I hear it from the neighborhood, after which I hear it exterior my window. I’m within the room with my spouse, and I hear the gunfire instantly exterior my window, in addition to shouting. I perceive Arabic. I understood precisely what was occurring: that Hamas has infiltrated our kibbutz, that there are terrorists exterior my window, and that I’m locked in my home and inside my protected room with two younger ladies, and I don’t know if anybody goes to come back to avoid wasting us.
That’s the way it began.
Rosenberg: One factor for individuals to know: Nahal Ozcould be very, very near the Gaza border. And that’s why you guys don’t have one thing like Iron Dome and why you’re within the protected room within the first place.
Tibon: Yeah, we’re so shut that Iron Dome, which is an incredible invention that protects massive components of Israel from rocket hearth, isn’t related in our space.
However I’ll inform you one thing. In a method, the truth that they shot the mortars at our neighborhood earlier than they broke by way of the border saved lots of people’s lives, as a result of it induced individuals to run into the protected room. And this protected room, for those who lock it correctly, could be very exhausting to open from the skin. Lots of people have been barricaded in these protected rooms for hours and typically a complete day. In lots of instances, the terrorists tried to interrupt in, and so they couldn’t.
What occurred in our case was that we have been sitting there at nighttime. A couple of minutes after we obtained in and we heard this gunfire, the electrical energy stopped. We had no meals. We did have some water. And we’re telling our daughters, “You must be quiet now. You must be completely quiet. Not a phrase. You’ll be able to’t cry. Can’t discuss. It’s harmful.” And my ladies have been absolute heroes. They waited silently at nighttime for 10 hours, and they didn’t cry. They understood. Perhaps that’s not the correct phrase, however they felt that we have been useless critical about this. So we’re with them at nighttime, and so they’re utterly silent.
To start with, we nonetheless had cell reception. A short while later, there was no cell reception both. I texted my mother and father, “There are terrorists exterior.” We really thought they have been inside the home, as a result of they have been firing reside ammunition into our home, and we heard it as if it’s inside. And we’re taking a look at our group textual content with our neighbors, and all people’s saying there are terrorists exterior my home or inside my home.
I referred to as a colleague and good friend, Amos Harel, the veteran military-affairs correspondent for Haaretz. I informed him, “Amos, there are terrorists exterior my home, perhaps even inside.” And what Amos informed me in reply was the scariest factor I heard. He mentioned, “Sure, I do know, however it’s not solely in your kibbutz; it’s not solely in Nahal Oz. It’s throughout southern Israel. It’s throughout. It’s in cities and in cities and in kibbutzim and in villages. 1000’s of armed Hamas fighters have infiltrated the nation. They’ve taken over navy bases.” That was scary, as a result of I noticed that if that’s the scenario, it can take a really very long time for the navy to come back and confront these terrorists and save us.
Rosenberg: May you speak about how we obtained thus far?
Tibon: Sure, I wish to say one thing about this failure of the navy and of the federal government. Miri and I moved to this neighborhood in 2014, instantly after the warfare that happened that summer season between Israel and Hamas, the 2014 Israel-Gaza warfare. We have been residing on the time in Tel Aviv, a younger couple with no kids. And the communities on the Gaza border throughout that warfare suffered from Hamas’s use of assault tunnels into Israel. They mainly dug tunnels beneath the border. The fighters would emerge from underground on the opposite facet, and so they killed and kidnapped troopers. The scariest factor again then have been the tunnels. We got here initially to assist the neighborhood, and we fell in love with the place and determined to remain there.
However successive Israeli governments, all of them led by Benjamin Netanyahu, invested billions of {dollars}—I feel a few of them really from U.S. assist—in setting up an underground wall to forestall Hamas from utilizing these tunnels once more. This was a significant infrastructure mission for the state of Israel. And that mission allowed us to sleep at evening, as a result of you may cope with rockets falling over your head in case you have a protected room in your home, but when terrorists are infiltrating underground and so they can stroll into your neighborhood, that’s a sport changer. And so the explanation we may reside there, and that’s true for everybody, is due to this underground wall that Israel constructed. And within the morning hours of Saturday, October 7, once we heard the gunfire exterior our window, we realized that this mission is an utter and full failure.
Israel invested a lot in it, and what did the Hamas individuals do? They took a couple of tractors and SUVs, and so they ran over the border fence. We ready the whole lot to make it unattainable for them to come back from underground, and so they simply walked by way of the border. That may be a main, main failure. And so, bringing myself again to the dialog with Amos Harel, once I realized that that is the scenario throughout, that’s once I thought, Okay, we’re going to die right here. No person’s going to have the ability to are available time. And in the event that they handle to interrupt into the home, they’ll then attempt to break into the protected room. And in the event that they handle to try this, we shall be useless or kidnapped.
Rosenberg: How did you in the end get out?
Tibon: I referred to as Amos, however I additionally referred to as my father. My father is a retired common. He’s 62 years outdated. He lives in Tel Aviv. And my mother and father informed me, “We’re coming. It’s an hour-and-20-minute drive.” Now, this goes towards all logic. However I informed myself, Okay, proper now I’m asking my two younger daughters to place full religion in me and my spouse, of their mother and father, to do what we’re telling them so as to save their lives, which is to be very, very quiet and perceive that we can not get out of the room, we can not go get meals, we can not go to the lavatory, we can not exit to play, and I’m asking them to place their religion in me utterly.
And I informed myself, I’ve to do the identical factor proper now. I’ve to belief my father, who’s a reliable man, that if he mentioned he’ll come right here and save us, he’ll do it. Solely many hours later, when my father arrived, did I study what had occurred that day to my mother and father, which is an unimaginable story by itself.
My mother and father began driving from Tel Aviv. They arrived within the city of Sderot, which is the most important city within the border space. After they get there, they see individuals strolling barefoot on the street. These are survivors from a music competition close by, the place the Hamas individuals got here early within the morning and massacred greater than 200 individuals, individuals who got here to a music competition. My mother and father put the survivors of their automotive and took them farther away from the border. They’d already gotten to the border space, however they’re seeing individuals who need assistance, in order that they take them away. After which they flip round and so they proceed driving towards our space.
They cease in a close-by neighborhood that’s near the border, however not as shut as we’re. And my father convinces a soldier who’s standing there and searching for a method to assist to come back with him to Nahal Oz, to my kibbutz, so as to kill terrorists and save households. They drive towards the kibbutz, however alongside the way in which, they see a navy pressure being ambushed by Hamas fighters. They get out of the automotive. My father is retired; he doesn’t have military-grade weapons. In Israel, in contrast to in America, residents can not purchase AR-15s, and I’m glad for that. However my father has a pistol with him, and he and this different soldier be part of the troopers who’re combating the Hamas cell, they assist kill them, and now they’re very near my kibbutz. They’re 5 minutes from the doorway to my kibbutz, however two of the troopers are wounded. And once more, my father has to show round. He places the wounded troopers in his automotive with the assistance of that different soldier who joined him, and so they return to the place my mom is.
My mother takes the wounded troopers together with her of their automotive to a hospital. My father sees one other retired former common, Israel Ziv, who’s nearer to 70 than 60. However Israel placed on his uniform and got here like an everyday soldier down south to attempt to assist. My father tells him, “Israel, I don’t have a automotive. My spouse is taking the wounded troopers to the hospital to avoid wasting them. I must get to Nahal Oz, the place my household is barricaded. My granddaughters are there. Take me to Nahal Oz.”
These two guys over the age of 60 are driving in an everyday automotive. It’s not even a Jeep or one thing. It’s not an armored automobile. It’s only a automotive, like individuals tackle the New Jersey Turnpike on their option to work within the morning. They’re driving now on the street the place half an hour earlier there was a lethal ambush of troopers. They each have weapons. My father took weapons from the wounded troopers, who gave them to him as a result of he informed them, “I’m going again in.”
They reached the doorway to the kibbutz. And after they get there, they meet a bunch of troopers from particular forces who’re about to start the very harmful strategy of going from home to accommodate in our neighborhood to attempt to have interaction the terrorists and launch the people who find themselves barricaded. By that time, I do not know that each one of that is occurring. We’re within the protected room. The terrorists are nonetheless exterior. And we’ve no cell reception. We’ve no telephone battery. We’re simply ready at nighttime.
However we begin listening to gunfire once more—and this time, it’s two sorts of weapons. And we understand there’s a battle. We understand that there’s an trade of fireside. And I inform my spouse, “He’s coming. My father is coming. They’re combating. He’s with these troopers.” They didn’t come instantly to our home. They went from home to accommodate, neighborhood to neighborhood, inside our neighborhood. I don’t keep in mind how lengthy it took.
We have been simply listening to the gunfire getting nearer and nearer. The women had fallen asleep, however now they awakened. I feel it’s 2 p.m. They haven’t had something to eat since final evening. There’s no gentle, and we don’t have cellphones anymore, so we will’t even present them our faces, and there’s one sentence that’s holding them from falling aside and beginning to cry—I’m telling them: “Grandfather is coming.”
I inform them, “If we keep quiet, your grandfather will come and get us out of right here.” And at 4 p.m., after 10 hours like this, we hear a big bang on the window, and we hear the voice of my father. Galia, my oldest daughter, says, “Saba higea”—“grandfather is right here.” And that’s once we all simply begin crying. And that’s once we knew that we have been protected.
Rosenberg: I wish to transfer from the private to the political somewhat bit. You’re employed for a Tel Aviv–based mostly liberal newspaper. Most individuals assume you reside in Tel Aviv, however you don’t. You moved to Nahal Oz, and also you informed me you have been impressed to go there after you first visited it as a journalist, following one other conflict with Gaza, throughout which the neighborhood had been rocketed many times. And but, you met individuals there who have been Israeli patriots nonetheless dedicated to the place and to peace and who needed to search out one thing higher, although they maybe had extra cause than anybody to mistrust the longer term. I do know you share that religion, however I’m questioning the way it feels proper now. Is that religion ever shaken?
Tibon: The politics of our space, of the Gaza-border space, could be very fascinating, and it’s a microcosm of politics in Israel. The kibbutz communities, like mine, are very left-leaning. And the big city within the space, Sderot, which additionally went by way of a horrible, horrible catastrophe, is definitely way more right-wing and spiritual and supportive of Netanyahu. So there’s this break up. However we’re on this collectively. It’s true that there’s this divide, however we’re each affected by these similar circumstances proper now. And I feel lots of people are going to reexamine the whole lot as soon as it’s over.
I like my neighborhood. I like my neighbors. I’m happy with them for his or her resilience on this horrible day. What we went by way of isn’t a novel story. That is the story of a complete area in Israel.
I’m ashamed of my authorities. We had a contract with the state that communities like ours shield the border. That is why individuals reside there. We shield the border with our presence there. This can be a basic technique of the state of Israel for the reason that earliest days of the nation, {that a} border that doesn’t have civilian communities and civilian life alongside it won’t be correctly protected.
We stored our a part of the contract. We lived on the border. We went by way of troublesome conditions typically, with mortars and with the usage of incendiary units to set fires within the fields. In the event you reside in a spot like Nahal Oz, you get up each morning and you realize there are individuals on the opposite facet of the border who wish to kill you and your kids. And so the contract was: We shield the border, and the state protects us.
And this authorities, which is the worst authorities within the historical past of the state of Israel, led by a corrupt, dysfunctional, and egoistic man who sees solely himself—Benjamin Netanyahu—failed us. There have been warning indicators that it will occur. The navy and the intelligence companies warned that Israel’s neighbors have been seeing the interior divide within the nation over the federal government’s disastrous plan to eradicate the powers of the judiciary. There are studies popping out as we communicate that Egyptian intelligence warned Netanyahu a couple of days in the past that Hamas was planning one thing huge on the border.
The best way that the occasions of the day unfolded is the worst failure within the historical past of the state of Israel. I imply, individuals like my father, like Israel Ziv and different retired officers, needed to come down to avoid wasting residents, to attempt to save their very own households and others. In the meantime, the navy is falling aside, and all of the civilian infrastructure that’s speculated to assist the navy and society in such an occasion can also be not functioning.
Pay attention, proper now we’ve to win this warfare. We’ve to destroy Hamas. We’ve to make it unattainable for them to ever, ever once more conduct something that’s even near what occurred on Saturday. No nation on this planet can enable one thing like this to occur to its residents and simply return to enterprise as common. I really feel very dangerous for the individuals of Gaza. I’m heartbroken. However this was our 9/11.
After we win the warfare and we eradicate Hamas, there shall be time additionally to throw into the dustbin of historical past any politician, beginning with the prime minister, who had something to do with this failure. However that’s a dialog for tomorrow. As we speak it’s about saving our residents and destroying the enemy’s potential to do one thing like this ever once more.
Rosenberg: Tomorrow, what occurs to Netanyahu?
Tibon: Initially, we’ve to win the warfare. That is crucial factor. After the warfare, I consider the individuals who went right down to battle and to rescue their households, and the individuals who have family members kidnapped inside Gaza, and the individuals who misplaced their properties—these individuals won’t enable this authorities to remain yet another day. The protests that Israel noticed within the final 12 months are going to be a kids’s sport in comparison with the anger of the general public after this. However proper now it’s about successful the warfare.
Rosenberg: This isn’t over. That is ongoing. There are individuals held hostage. What do you count on now from the U.S. and the world?
Tibon: Initially, I used to be relieved to see the very, very robust dedication of President Biden, verbally but in addition in motion, in sending U.S. navy forces to the area and making clear that if some other actor within the area is confused, the US will assist Israel if somebody is attempting to make use of this second of disaster within the improper method.
There may be the difficulty of the Israelis who’re kidnapped, a few of whom are twin residents of different international locations. And on this, as somebody who covers diplomacy, I feel the language actually issues. You’ll be able to say, “Hamas is accountable for their destiny.” That’s, you realize, the standard diplo-speak. However the sentence I hope to listen to from international locations, together with the US but in addition others, is: “We count on their instant launch.”
These are residents, okay? Nearly all of them usually are not troopers. There are various ladies there. There are kids; there are aged individuals. And I feel the worldwide place must be that they should be instantly launched. That is what I hope to listen to.
