Our drive from Ofakim to Kfar Gaza lasted 35 nightmarish minutes. On paper I knew that the city was far from the Gaza Strip, and since the war I had already visited Bari, Sderot, Bezikim and other points in the Otef. But only this week, when I swallowed the opposite way to the one taken by the murderers of the victim on the morning of Simchat Torah, I internalized the depth of their penetration into the heart of the country. At 6:30 in the morning, they raced in their white pick-up vehicles and motorcycles for about 30 km, deliberately skipping many settlements along the way, including Petish, a track, and the Adi Negev Hospital. All this - to kill Jews precisely in the horizons.
"In the city call center's diary, the first evidence of terrorist infiltration was recorded at 7:02, but we know that the first calls to the call center came at least ten minutes before that."
This is what the mayor of Ofakim, Itzik Danino, told this week to a group of colleagues of the "Gesher Leadership Institute", as part of which I conducted the tour in the south.
Danino has been serving as mayor for ten years.
On his watch, Ofakim underwent a transformation.
One of the procedures he and the director general of the municipality, Yoram Nachmani, established, was to open shelters every time there were tensions and there was a fear of rocket fire.
What will 20 percent of the residents do who do not have MMDs?"
Told frankly.
"When the ten minutes that I was in the MMD by myself were over, I picked up the phone to the CEO to hear if there were any falls or casualties. He told me for the first time that there were terrorists in the city, but I didn't really understand the event. Squads of terrorists on the horizon?!"
Only another call from a family member, who told him "Itzik, I'm seeing the neighbors. They're on their way to me", dropped the token for him.
"This is a situation in which a mayor has no ability to influence. Powerless. What do I do? I have no emergency squads, I have no police - all the Ofakim police are at the party of nature in the bad. There is no army, no security forces. What am I doing?! They are murdering your residents , and you don't have any tools to deal with the situation."
After a few minutes of thinking, he came up with an idea: "Foreign Minister Eli Cohen is in the defense cabinet, and he is a good friend. He will initiate the military and political moves much better than me."
Danino called Cohen, and in a choked voice told him: "Mr. Minister, there are terrorists on the horizon. They are going door to door and murdering my residents."
Cohen promised to take care, but Danino got the impression that salvation would not grow from here.
Kfar Gaza after two weeks from the beginning of the fighting
Shmuel Buchris
He decided to contact the Minister of Defense, Yoav Galant, and make a demand: "I call him before 7:00 in the morning and say: 'Mr. Minister, if there is not a helicopter here within half an hour - we will slaughter the city.'" There is a 20-second wireless silence, Like forever, and he says: 'I'm taking care.' I don't see the rescue forces.' He tells me: 'I'm taking care.' The first soldier arrived at Ofakim at 2:00 PM."
47 people were murdered in Ofak in the first two days of the war.
Those who stopped the spread of carnage with their bodies were residents who jumped into the fire, sometimes with a kitchen knife, to stop the killers.
Thanks to their bravery Ofakim, it came out relatively cheap.
In a town of 30,000 people, it could have been a lot worse.
At that very hour, 25 km away, a new killing ravine arose in Jewish memory.
A Guide to the Paths of Hell
We said our goodbyes and got on the buses, to a place where crowds are already coming to pay their respects to the murdered.
In Reim Park, at the center of the party where the subhumans perpetrated the horrors that the devil did not create, hundreds of bezants with pictures of the murdered were stuck in the ground.
Passers-by walked among the names, listened to a ZAKA man who recounted the dark days after the massacre, prayed in a makeshift synagogue or recited psalms to uplift the souls of the unfortunate young people.
The heart still refused to absorb what the mind already knew.
In the forest of the Land of Israel, in the regenerating state of the Jews, the first anemones bloomed.
Every year, and this year as well, the Darom Adom festival will be celebrated here.
But how is it possible that Babi Yar arose in the heart of the Western Negev?
How is it possible that the Nazis jumped one day from the belly of the earth and the abyss of history, and slaughtered everything in their path?
"I call him even before 7:00 in the morning, and say: 'Mr. Minister of Defense, if there is not a helicopter here within half an hour - we will slaughter the city.'
"They didn't try to hide like the Nazis or like the Arabs of Hebron in 1959," said a broken-hearted Shimon Alkabatz in Gaza village, a short drive away. "They broadcast the acts live and in color.
A word has not yet been found in the Hebrew language to describe what was here." That same day Mr. Vanmehar Alkabatz lost his daughter Sivan and her boyfriend Noor Hassidim. The two lived in the youth neighborhood, next to the kibbutz fence, a stone's throw from Gaza.
Indeed, today everyone already knows that the terms "massacre" and "pogrom" are too small to describe the acts of farts, which are still not fully known to the public.
Alkabats, a modest and pleasant man, lived in Kfar Gaza for a total of five years.
For many years he held significant positions in the world of Israeli media, including commander of Gali IDF and director of Network B. His family followed him around the country due to work. This time he acceded to the request of his wife, who preferred the pastoral quiet to the urban penthouse.
Itzik Danino, mayor of Ofakim, photo: Baruch Sharvit
Only 300 meters separated the parents' house from the residence of the young couple, but the father's hand was short of salvation.
"Father, promise me that everything is fine with you. They are shooting at us in the house, Nour and I are hiding under the bed," Sivan wrote to him during the hours of terror.
When the terrorists are infested all around and people are murdered in every corner, Alkabatz could not do anything.
Now, from being a kibbutz presenter, he has become a guide on the paths of hell.
Sivan's house became a makeshift museum to commemorate the crimes.
All the residents of her neighborhood, including Yotam Haim (son of Iris, interviewed in this supplement), were kidnapped or killed in strange deaths.
Alkabatz showed us how close Gaza is to a kibbutz.
He also pointed to the large lawn and said: "On Yom Kippur it was full of worshipers. Ten days later the bodies were gathered here."
His request - a plea, in fact - is to maintain unity.
"The great soul-searching will be done after, with God's help, the abductees and the abductees return, after our soldiers finish what they are doing in Gaza, and after our reservists also return safely. It is impossible to do the soul-searching now, when 136 of our best sons and daughters, our mothers and grandfathers , are in the dark tunnels in Gaza. It's impossible to take stock when the soldiers are fighting and rooting out evil - and that's what happened here."
What about asking for forgiveness?
Today the voice of Alkabats is the voice of the crowd.
The cry of unity is heard from all sides.
From the bereaved families, from the reserve and regular soldiers, from the majority of the public in Israel according to the polls, from my teammates at "Gesher", the bus driver who took us that day, and did not stand up to the harsh scenes in Reim Park.
"What happened is a punishment from heaven for the separation. It's a shame that there are people who don't understand it," he said.
His anger was also directed towards the judges of the Supreme Court, who published the judgments in the midst of the war. One can only agree with him.
The evacuees also usually advocate for unity, and understand that it is the order of the hour.
Many more months are expected of them outside their homes, and each individual and community faces the displacement in their own way.
Last week, Major General of the Southern Command Yaron Finlakman met the members of the communities who were evacuated to the Dead Sea hotels, and informed them that as far as the army is concerned - they will only be able to return home during the summer vacation.
"And even then there may be drizzles, as there were before the war," he informed them.
But in the face of these challenges in the real world, the general public once again finds itself faced with domestic shenanigans.
A small and powerful group, which once again pulls us all into an internal rift.
A coordinated campaign with mixed messages on social networks, on billboards and in studios.
A group of commentators that completely coincidentally echoes Yair Lapid's call to "go to the elections now".
Alkabatz's request is to maintain unity: "We will do the soul-searching after, with God's help, the abductees return, after our soldiers finish what they are doing in Gaza."
And also a group of exes, who instead of publishing articles of regret and forgiveness, continue to make claims to the whole world - except to themselves.
What should the senior officers apologize for?
For the fact that many of them supported and pushed for the two withdrawals from Gaza, in 1994 and 2005 - withdrawals that allowed terrorism to accumulate for 30 years.
The various generals did this, even though many warned them that Hamastan would be established in Gaza.
Those awarded the ranks should also apologize for the fact that the army, in which they played significant roles, did not understand what was being built under their noses in Gaza, during their shifts.
Above all, many of those preachers at the gate had a direct part in the army's unpreparedness that terrible morning.
Here is the testimony of the commander of the Palmachim base, Brigadier General Omri Dor, on the third day of the war: "It (the protest) caught us in a challenging place.
Palmachim had 100 percent attendance, but not all of them returned to flying, because they need to build a service.
We will pay a price for this, because they are not fully qualified." In other words, even on the third day of the default, and even after that, not all pilots were still qualified, because of the refusals. This is what the commander at whose base the "Zik" planes and the "Owl" assault and rescue helicopters are stationed ". He told this to commentator "Wala!" Dr. Amir Bohbot.
It can be assumed that what happened in Palmachim also happened at other Air Force or Amman bases, where the scourge of reluctance had spread. So everyone who played with the fire of non-attendance has direct responsibility for the late and lax response in the first week of the war. the public. Instead, they are dragging the people of Israel into another disaster - elections in the middle of the most difficult war since 1948. It is not theirs or Lapid has another plan to eliminate Hamas, or another idea that Bibi, Galant and Gantz did not think of, or a patent trick If they sit in the deerskin chairs it will be possible to implement it. Still - the main thing, of course, is to get rid of Bibi and the right.
Take, for example, the retired Chief of Staff Bogie Ya'alon. In July 2023, Ya'alon signed the senior officers' letter, which supported "the men and women who decided to take action and suspend their volunteering for reserve service." This is a commander who resisted disengagement and paid for it in his seat. As Chief of Staff, the first Hamas tunnels were built in Gaza.
As Defense Minister, Ya'alon was wrong already in 2014 when he claimed that Hamas "is deterred and does not want war".
A minute later Operation Tzuk Eitan broke out.
This is the same Ya'alon who knew about the tunnels penetrating Israeli territory from Gaza, but did nothing about it.
Ya'alon even embarked on a personal campaign of persecution against then minister Naftali Bennett, who forced the cabinet to destroy the tunnels.
After that war, still with Ya'alon, Hamas strengthened again, as happened with all the defense ministers.
Instead of saying "I'm sorry, I was wrong all along", or at least sit at home quietly - Ya'alon, who backed up refusal, as mentioned, is now calling to go to the elections.
With this additional front, the internal one, that the people of Israel have to deal with in their difficult time.
Woe to me at home, woe to me outside.
The whisperers to Gantz
The most politically sensitive party to the calls to the Sha'evres is Minister Benny Gantz.
Fundamentally, Gantz completely disagreed with them.
It is clear to him that unity is essential, which is why he publishes every Monday and Thursday statements such as "The fighting continues, and the goals of the war remain valid. They have not changed, and it is not right to change them, it will take as long as it takes."
Except that those generals and rales in the reserves are the circle of friends of the former chief of staff.
And even if the polls currently show that unity pays off politically - he has a fear that Netanyahu will knock him out again, as he has done many times before.
In his own eyes, Gantz is a sucker who puts the good of the country first, while Netanyahu plays politics.
He really does not want to collapse again because of this relationship, so it is not known how long he and his friends will hold out against the moves and exercises of their partners in the government.
But not only the former - the American administration already wants the government to fall.
The briefings from the White House don't even try to dampen that message.
In the view of Biden and Blinken, Netanyahu is the obstacle to the "difficult decisions" centered on the readiness to establish a Palestinian state.
There is only one problem with the American theory: Has anyone heard Benny Gantz say "Palestinian state" in the last five years?
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