Heavy clouds cover the sky, hiding the rays of the rising sun. The powerful pounding coming from the west could pass for a distant storm were it not for the bursts of machine gun fire from attack helicopters flying over Gaza, less than 3 kilometers from the Kibbutz of Kfar Aza. He was on the front line during the attack carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Of the 700 inhabitants, 64 were killed, 19 kidnapped and 5 are still in captivity.
A year later, the war triggered by this massacre, the worst in Israel’s history with some 1,200 victims, is still not over. This morning, it can be heard by its bombings. It can be seen by the small houses of the kibbutz ravaged by fire and explosions. She feels, reading the fatigue of long months of ordeal on the faces of the people gathered this morning, at 6 o’clock, for a ceremony of homage, in the heart of the village, on the lawn where, a year earlier, after After the attack, the bodies of Hamas fighters were left on the ground, and those of the victims were packed in body bags, to be loaded onto trucks and taken to identification sites.
Before the start of the ceremony, we warn: “If there is a red alert, there are three shelters nearby. » The army says it detected attempts by Hamas to fire rockets into Israeli territory as 6:29 a.m. approached, the time the offensive was launched.
At the appointed time, the ceremony begins with a moment of meditation. The Israeli flag is flown at half-mast. A small flame burns in a brazier. A black poster pays tribute to the seven members of the kibbutz guard killed during the attack. Photos surrounded by yellow ribbon show the portraits of the hostages still in Hamas hands. At the same time, all of Israel meditates. In Jerusalem, the families of hostages and the missing gathered in front of the Prime Minister’s residence, to demand the return of the 101 captives still held by Hamas; cause abandoned by Benyamin Netanyahu, in favor of an all-out war and his maintenance in power.
“The smell of war hung everywhere”
In Kfar Aza, a few people speak. Among them, Arik Moran. He represents the volunteers who came from all over the country to carry out cleaning and restoration work in the kibbutz: “We will continue to work here as much as necessary. Hope dies last. » He recalls the first days of their mission: “It was a crazy contrast. On one side, a beautiful kibbutz with flower gardens. Vegetable gardens and orchards, paths with squares; and on the other side, an environment of barbaric war, destruction and devastation that burned the eyes and the heart. »
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