“The children who died, they came to play in my house”

2023-10-14 09:14:34

Please note, this article contains details that may offend the sensibilities of some readers.

“My eldest daughter lost her best friend, my 17-year-old son lost his girlfriend, my 14-year-old son lost his best friend who was a promising basketball player. » It was with this terrible enumeration that she confided to 20 Minutes that Elinor Bariach must now experience. This mother survived with her husband and three children the attack perpetrated early on Saturday October 7 by Hamas in the Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where she had lived for 15 years. This village, located about five kilometers from the metal barrier that separates the Gaza Strip from Israel, was the site of a “massacre”, had launched an Israeli soldier on site Tuesday. Other kibbutzim, as well as a music festival, were targeted by attacks the same day.

The lives of Elinor Bariach and the 700 inhabitants of this community established in 1951 were turned upside down in the early hours of that Saturday morning. “We woke up to the sound of sirens,” recalls the mother in a testimony for the Voices of Israel association, which Elinor Bariach sent to us. In Kfar Aza, we only have 15 seconds to reach the shelters. There were so many rockets, it was horrible. My husband Sharon came out for a minute and told me something weird was happening. He heard “Allah Akbar” and then we understood that this is the exact moment when they arrived in our kibbutz and the first families who lived next to this field were killed. »

Improvised means of defense

Taking advantage of a “short lull” between rocket fire, the family took refuge in their shelter. The kibbutz houses, due to their proximity to the Gaza Strip, are all equipped with them. These rooms were designed to survive aerial attacks rather than ground attacks: they do not lock. Elinor’s husband grabs a kitchen knife to defend the family. “My sons also had knives. I thought I couldn’t bear to see my fourteen year old son with a knife. It didn’t make any sense. Nothing made sense. »

The members of the kibbutz, refugees in the shelters, communicate with each other by messaging. “On the Whatsapp group, we received advice on how to close the shelter from the inside: someone said we had to break the handle. My husband had the strength to do it but some women did not succeed and the result was death. »

A nine-year-old boy hiding in a closet with his six-year-old sister

The terrible news flooded through the mailboxes: “People started writing horrible things about terrorists in their homes and then they stopped writing. And then there was this nine-year-old boy who wrote to his aunt that his parents had been killed in the shelter and that he was hiding in the closet with his six-year-old sister. He also wrote that his four year old sister was taken outside and afterwards we were told she was hanged and burned with other very young children. For nine hours, this boy kept his sister busy and quiet in the closet. »

“All terrorists did not act in the same way,” continues Elinor Bariach. There is a single mother of two who spoke to the terrorist who entered her house. He decided to leave home. He didn’t kill her. »

“I started writing goodbye messages”

After three or four hours in the shelter, “we started hearing screams nearby. I have never felt so helpless in my entire life. I started writing goodbye messages. I told my sister not to say anything yet to my mother, who was a child hidden in a monastery during World War II. »

After hours of anguish, where attackers tried to enter their house, the Israeli army arrived at their door at ten o’clock in the evening. Elinor is suspicious, fearing that they are Hamas members posing as soldiers. “I yelled through the shelter door, what’s your name? Where are you from ? » A soldier tells him his name then replies that he is from Tel Aviv. “I was still doubtful, so I asked him what scout group he had been in. I grew up in Tel Aviv and I know that everyone goes to scouts. He shouted back the name of his group and I told my husband it was OK. »

“You don’t want to tell your kids, but they already know”

For Maor Moravia’s family, the liberation by the Israeli army came minutes earlier in the shelter of their home, which usually serves as their daughter’s bedroom. Like Elinor’s family, they were awakened by missile fire. “I went outside and I heard gunshots, I told myself that something serious and unusual was happening,” the father told 20 Minutes. In 2008, a kibbutz member had been killed by mortar fire. No ground attack had targeted the village before.

The family, who have lived in Kfar Aza for five years, are taking refuge in the shelter, without water, without air conditioning while the temperatures are still high. “We were suffocating,” he remembers. The children hide under the bed. He closes the door with what he has at hand, “some ropes that my daughter had”.

The children also send messages and learn that friends have died. “There were families who were massacred in their homes. You don’t want to tell your kids, but they already know. »

“The children who died, they came to play in my house”

His daughter’s friend’s house was burned down, he recalls. Maor Moravia knew the victims. “Kfar Aza is a small community, everyone knows each other. The children all play together. The children who died, they came to play in my house. » This village “was not a military outpost, it is a small community of civilians”, he emphasizes.

The soldiers ask them not to look around them

At the time of writing, no official report has been communicated on the number of deaths in Kfar Aza. The two survivors told us of fifty to sixty victims, without being certain, especially since members of the kibbutz are still missing. “My daughter has a friend who was taken to Gaza with her mother and the other two siblings,” says Maor Moravia.

Maor Moravia and Elinor Bariach are now with their family in another location in Israel. Elinor Bariach remembers that the soldiers gave them “ten minutes” to pack, before another alert forced them to return to their shelter. “We were so tired. It wasn’t until just 2:30 a.m. that we were allowed to start walking the central path of the kibbutz. After so many hours alone, we met other members of the kibbutz. We hugged each other and started crying because we realized that many people were missing. »

On the way, the soldiers ask them not to look around, which Elinor respects. “That march was horrible. We were exhausted and this path we knew so well had become something completely different. It was like the death march to Auschwitz. » The family is taken to trucks, then buses, before arriving at another kibbutz on Sunday morning. “We were finally able to sleep. »

Maor Moravia has taken refuge with his wife and children “in a safe place”. Her children have not yet been able to return to school. The programmer did not return to work. “I don’t have a computer to work with and I don’t have the emotional strength to respond to my customers. I’m just trying to find out if my house is still standing. »

Will they one day return to live in Kfar Aza? “That’s a very good question,” he replies. We are waiting to know if Hamas will be eliminated. They are like Daesh, you don’t want to have Daesh as a neighbor. » Members of the kibbutz they’ve thrown an online fundraiser to rebuild the village. Maor Moravia hopes that his future will be in this kibbutz. “We want to rebuild everything. We Israelis are lions, we don’t give up easily. »