Batsheva Yahalomi will not return to live in Nir Oz. Too much trauma, too much anguish, too much suffering are associated with this kibbutz barely 2 kilometers from the Gaza Strip. On October 7, it was attacked, like the other localities bordering the Palestinian enclave, by hundreds of Hamas fighters. The teacher found the strength to escape from the clutches of the attackers with her 10-year-old daughter and her baby. But her son Eitan, 13, was kidnapped before her eyes like her husband, Ohad, injured during the assault. Eitan was released after fifty-two days of captivity. Ohad remains in the hands of Hamas. He and Ofer Kalderon, another resident of Nir Oz, are the last two French hostages held by the Islamist organization. They are among 101 captives still held in Gaza tunnels.
As the anniversary of the national tragedy approaches, Batsheva Yahalomi once again visited the scene of the tragedy. Outside, in the green alleys of the village, lined with destroyed or ransacked houses, the sound of Israeli artillery cannons is heard. The mother knows, however, that the center of gravity of the war has moved to the north. This gives him as much reason for hope as for worry. “The confrontation with Lebanese Hezbollah could lead to a ceasefire at all borders, which would allow the return of the hostages,” she explains. Or degenerate into total war. » The Iranian missile attack on the Jewish state on Tuesday and the expected response from Tel Aviv reinforce the idea of the latter scenario.
Another worry gnaws at the young woman, resettled with her children in HaOgen, another kibbutz in central Israel, populated by Holocaust survivors. “The further we move away from October 7, the less empathy the fate of our loved ones arouses. In Israel, the hostages have become a political subject. But it is not possible to live in a country that does not do everything to bring its own people home. And abroad, people do not understand that our neighbors are not Switzerland or Germany, but terrorist organizations. »
Israel: a new blow for the families of hostages
The soldiers continue to fall
So that their voices are not muffled, Batsheva Yahalomi plans to go to Paris tomorrow with Ofer Kalderon’s relatives. Accompanied by the former Israeli ambassador to France Daniel Shek, who put himself at the service of the Hostage Families Forum, they should meet Emmanuel Macron and Michel Barnier before participating in the tribute ceremony organized by the Crif at the Dôme de Paris. For Sharon Kalderon, Ofer’s sister-in-law, there is in any case no question of attending the official October 7 commemoration ceremony organized by the Netanyahu government.
“We do not need to commemorate an event that is still not over, she is indignant. This is a provocation! » This resident of Kibbutz Sufa, on the edge of the Gaza Strip, who survived the Hamas assault by remaining locked in her shelter for thirty-four hours, recalls that the first Holocaust Remembrance Day was held in the country in 1951, two years after the end of the Arab-Israeli war. “The most urgent thing is to find a way to stop the war to bring back those who are absent, she adds. Because military pressure doesn’t help the hostages, it kills them. »
A feeling shared by those close to the couple Yarden and Shiri Bibas, also kidnapped in Nir Oz with their two children, Ariel, now 5 years old, and Kfir, 20 months. “An agreement to bring back the hostages will not cause another October 7, argues Ofri Bibas Levy, Yarden’s sister. It is not unusual to mark a day of national mourning, one year after this disaster. But this must be an opportunity to cry: “Why does this continue?” » Soldiers are killed. Refugees cannot return home. And now the war in Lebanon threatens to push the hostages into oblivion.
