2023-11-08 19:40:00
Retired major general Noam Tibon, 62, lives with his wife, Mira, in Tel Aviv. On the morning of October 7, he followed with concern what was happening in the South. He thinks first of his son, Amir, 34, a renowned journalist for the daily Time, who lives in kibbutz Nahal Oz, very close to Gaza, with his partner, Miri, their two daughters, Galia, 3 years old, and Carmel, 1 year old. Around 6:30 a.m., when the alert sounded followed by rocket fire launched by Hamas, all four locked themselves in the secure and reinforced room of their house.
Around 7 a.m., Amir hears voices in Arabic. He understands that they are attackers. He calls his father on the phone. In a low voice, he said to her: “There are terrorists outside the house. » No need to say more. Noam Tibon understood. He takes his car, armed with his pistol. His wife at his side, he heads south. First stop, Kibbutz Mefalsim, where they discovered inanimate bodies and burned cars. Suddenly a young couple, barefoot, appears. They are survivors of the massacre committed by Hamas at the Supernova music festival. Noam and Mira put them in their car and drove them to safety in Ashkelon, on the coast. They hit the road again.
House after house. The general drops his wife off at Mefalsim, takes on board a soldier who agreed to accompany him and resumes his journey. At the entrance to Nahal Oz, the two men join a group of soldiers who are fighting against terrorists. They help them fight the attackers. Two soldiers are injured. The general puts them in his car and returns to Mefalsim, from where his wife will take them to the hospital. Shortly after – it is around 2 p.m. – he returns to Nahal Oz. Amid the chaos, Noam comes across another retired general, Israel Ziv, 66, who has put himself back in uniform to come and fight.
Accompanied by soldiers sent as reinforcements, the two generals entered the kibbutz, advancing house after house. They kill six terrorists in the process and free families who have been locked up since the morning. “When I arrived near my son’s house, says Noam Tibon, there were the bodies of five terrorists and that of an Israeli soldier. I approached the window. I knocked hard on the protective shutter and said: “Amir, it’s dad. You can open.” »“It was around 4 p.m. remembers Amir. We had been in the dark for ten hours, without a word. I told my daughters to stay quiet. Nothing was supposed to cause us to be spotted. So when Dad arrived, we cried with relief. We knew we were saved. »
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