The handwritten inscriptions of Lieutenant Elisha Libman can be found on dozens of homes throughout Gaza. Each time the words are different, but the messages, intended for his brother Elyakim, who was kidnapped by terrorists to Gaza, are the same: "Eliak - we are on our way," was written in one case, between two defenders of David. "Eliac until Atti arrived, some more," read another message. And on the beach, just after disembarking from the Hummer with bullet marks clearly visible, Elisha wrote the most moving message of all, perhaps because he was only one word old: "I miss you."
"I wrote dozens of inscriptions, on almost every wall," Elisha says. "Although in Gaza there are walls that could explode, so there are also those that I left empty, but wherever I can, I leave the message to my brother, who was kidnapped by Hamas. I wrote graffiti while shooting, and there is documentation of captions that were fired at after I finished. As far as I'm concerned, it's part of my mission, to convey the message to my brother – we're on our way to you."
"Elyakim Libman is coming home" - Elisha Libman's inscription on the spoon of a bulldozer in Gaza, photo: courtesy of Elisha Libman
A family plagued by terrorism
Nearly two months have passed since Elyakim Libman (24) sent his last message to his older brother Elisha (26), just two days before Hamas terrorists invaded the Gaza envelope. Nearly two months have passed since his day as a civilian security guard at the Nova Festival near Re'im became the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel's history and ended in a massacre, and since then he has been kidnapped to Gaza. Nearly two months have passed since Elisha cocked his pistol outside his home in Tana Omrim in Mount Hebron and went to the Gaza envelope, risking his life to save more and more civilians caught in the fire of the murderers.
The Liebman family is gripped by terrorism. Elisha and Elyakim are two of the eight children of Eliyahu Libman, head of the Kiryat Arba Hebron Council, who served as Hebron's security officer for two decades and is the hero of the battle on the Worshippers' Route 21 years ago. Then the father jumped into the alley of death where Hebron Brigade Commander Dror Weinberg was killed, among others, and eliminated the terrorists together with members of the Kiryat Arba alert squad. "I was about 5 years old," Elisha says. "I remember the shooting, my father jumping and the ambulances that were clearly visible from our balcony. The next day, I saw my father's car pierced by gunfire. I played with glass and got cut."
Eliyahu educated his children to sacrifice for the State of Israel, as did members of his extended family. At the moment, no fewer than 20 of her sons serve in the reserves, from sergeant to lieutenant colonel. One of Elisha's cousins was injured and is anesthetized and on a ventilator. So when Elisha's time came to enlist, it wasn't a question.
Elisha (right) and his younger brother Elyakim, photo: from the family album
At first he served in the Givati Brigade and later as a Brigade driver in the reconnaissance battalion. When he was released six years ago, he married a Tzofit, and the two moved to Tana Omrim, where Elisha served for a time as chief of staff. They have two daughters – Zohar (3 and a half) and Arbel (a year and a half). "My dream is for my daughter to love the area as much as I do," Elisha smiles. "I take her with me right after kindergarten on jeep trips." Two months before the outbreak of the war, he began working at Pointer: "Instead of chasing terrorists as CSO, I chase car thieves," he smiles.
Elisha and Elyakim are two of the eight children of Eliyahu Libman, head of the Kiryat Arba-Hebron Council, hero of the battle on the Worshippers' Route 21 years ago, when he was Hebron's security officer and killed terrorists along with members of the alert squad
He calls Elyakim, his younger brother, "my best friend." Because of their small age difference, the two share quite a few common interests. "We did a lot of trips together with the horses or in jeeps. Facebook reminded me a few days ago that last year we were on a trip in the desert."
Elyakim did his military service first in the Golani, then in the Egoz unit and finally as a member of the deputy commander of the Etzion Brigade. After his release, he began to combine his love of the kitchen with his experience in the field of security. "He worked in Tel Aviv as a security guard in clubs night and day as a cook in a restaurant."
The work at the Nova Festival was supposed to be like any other work in the field of security. Elkana Federman, Elyakim's friend, suggested that he come and secure the huge event without weapons, and he gladly accepted. "My brother always likes to filter us on the phone. I planned to visit him at a party on Thursday night, October 5. I asked him to send me a WhatsApp location, but he didn't answer, so in the end the visit didn't happen."
On Saturday at 06:30 a.m., the world of the thousands of festival goers turned upside down. The explosions of interceptions began to be heard above their heads, and after a short time the event was cancelled and the organizers asked the many partygoers to quickly evacuate the scene. Elyakim, together with his friends, was engaged in directing the crowds from the scene and found himself at the heart of the terrorist attack. Survivor testimonies indicate that Elyakim rescued quite a few wounded and dead during the attack and refused to leave the area.
At 09 a.m., his family received his last sign of life. "Elyakim sent my father a message that he was surrounded by terrorists and that they would bring forces, and my father updated me."
Elisha calls Eliakim, his younger brother, "my best friend." The two share quite a few interests: "We did a lot of trips together with the horses or in jeeps. Facebook reminded me that only last year we were on a trip to the desert."
Urgent order on 7 October
We sit on opposite sides of a large table in the Yemen Field Camp. Elisha, a skinny young man, dressed in a tactical uniform and rank insignia and a khaki flag of the State of Israel attached to his shoulder. In one of his ears is an earring with an embarrassed smile on his face. Last July, five years after his discharge, he completed the officers' course at Bahad 1 and became an officer in the administrative assistance unit of the Givati Brigade.
This is a reserve unit that functions as a battalion for all intents and purposes, and includes a medical evacuation platoon, a mobility platoon, a forward resuscitation company and more. After dozens of days on the battlefield, and as a man who is all about intensive work in the field, sitting in the office takes him out of his comfort zone a bit. "Today is my brother's birthday," he says. A few days ago, his sisters went out to buy Elyakim a gift, which will be when he returns.
24 years old. Elisha celebrates Elyakim's birthday, photo: courtesy of Elisha Libman
On 7 October, while his brother was fighting for his life and the lives of those hanging out with him, Elisha received the order to leave as soon as possible to the Yemen field camp, from where we would fight for our home. "At 8 a.m., my battalion commander called me and told me to pick up a friend of mine who lives nearby and get to the base as soon as possible. ' A war has started," he said. As soon as I received the message, I opened Telegram and realized what was happening. I was in a CSO course and we were preparing for exactly such a scenario, so I knew it was a possibility. By the way, I did the course together with Inbal Lieberman, the CSO who worked to secure Kibbutz Nir with the attacked.
"I wasn't surprised, because I grew up with a father who said that one day exactly such a scenario would happen, that they would attack us by the thousands. In the education I received, I learned that we don't make deals with enemies, because as soon as they get the chance, they will mount us and murder us. They don't care about infrastructure or their friends who are killed. I grew up in Hebron, I know the enemy and what he is capable of. For a moment I had no doubt that if they came in, not only would they not help, but if they encountered people they would massacre them. If someone comes out alive, it's only because a terrorist didn't succeed in murdering him."
Within minutes, Elisha left his house. "My wife, Scout, helped me prepare. She, too, is a member of an alert squad, probably one of the only ones in Israel, as a veteran of a search and rescue battalion, and in fact she is now guarding the community with my rifle, which I left behind according to procedure. Within a short time, I went out and galloped to the base." At the Yemen Field Camp, he joined the deputy commander of the Givati Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Dor, in an unarmored Hummer jeep, and the team set out at a gallop to Sderot, which was under attack.
"At the entrance to Sderot I saw a motorcyclist who had been killed, lying on the floor. I bypassed him and a few other dead people to get to the police station. At that point, there was still fighting in Sderot, but even though we heard shots, we didn't encounter the enemy."
After a quick assessment of the situation on the ground, it turned out that there were enough forces in Sderot, and then one of Lt. Col. Dor's command staff members received information about fighters' encounters with terrorists in the Re'im area. "A friend who was with us in the force got a location from his wife's sister, who was in the field, and we decided to go there."
Just in one word - "miss". Elisha with a sign he wrote to his brother on the Gaza beach, Photo: Hillel Shishportish
The sights Elisha saw on his way to a party in bad guys he will never forget. Burnt vehicles, riddled with bullets, and countless bodies lying on the road. "All the way we saw vehicles thrown around, civilians and soldiers killed, terrorists eliminated. Burned bodies, body parts. Horrors that are hard to describe." Elisha encountered terrorists several times that day, but he is already a war veteran and is not moved. "Who would have thought that we would define an encounter with three terrorists as nothing."
At the entrance to the Nova Festival grounds there was a deafening silence. Hundreds of bodies of murdered partygoers were discovered in front of the force, which was one of the first to arrive on the scene. The brigade sergeant took command of the area, divided the 20 people present into teams, and ordered them to begin rescuing wounded and survivors. "We started walking through the party. We went through a tent, and in each one we found four or five bodies, and between them you have to bypass more and more bodies lying outside. It was terrible."
Testimonies of survivors of the Nova Festival indicate that Elyakim rescued quite a few wounded and dead. At 09 a.m., his family received one last sign of life. "Elyakim sent my father a message that he was surrounded by terrorists and that they would bring forces, and my father updated me."
Wounded among the dead
Elisha is silent for a moment and tells of an optimistic moment when they first found an injured woman in the field, an event that turned into a huge break last Saturday. "In one of the tents we opened, we saw someone moving between two dead. I was with a doctor and several female soldiers from the Border Police tactical unit. We took her out and put her on the Humvee using a table we found. She had a pulse when we lowered her to Ofakim.
"Last Saturday they told me she had been killed. She succumbed to her wounds 26 days later. It sucks. We felt like we had finally saved someone. You see so many dead, so many horrors, and you want to find something that will give you the strength to keep going. Then we found someone alive and brought her to the ambulance. When I heard she had died, it was very hard." Elisha tells us that it is Ella Hamoy, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, from the Gaza envelope, and a soldier sitting next to us sighs. She knew her. Elisha apologizes to her, and she replies that it's okay. Another horror in a never-ending cycle of bereavement.
"I felt that my hope had been extinguished. The doctor who told me she had been killed saw how hard it was for me and told me that I must not forget how much we managed to get out alive," Elisha shares, continuing with his description of the impossible mission.
"We arrived ten minutes after the encounter, and there was quite a bit of shooting in the area. We started taking people out of the forest, according to the locations of the party's security officer. The forces shout 'IDF, IDF' - and people come out of the forest or run away from us, they were afraid they were terrorists. It was a crazy experience. People came out of the forest, shaking. We were shocked. We managed to get a lot of people out. We saw a lot of dead people - policemen, soldiers, civilians, women, men. And suddenly out of this nothingness comes someone alive. I didn't have a minute to think. I went back and forth with a lot of people. You can't think, because you're traveling between bodies, and if you start thinking, you won't be able to function."
"Eliac - we are on our way." Night photo of one of the inscriptions, photo: courtesy of Elisha Libman
In parallel with his mission, Elisha began searching for his brother, Eliakim. In retrospect, he found out that he arrived a few minutes too late. The last time anyone saw Elyakim Libman was on Saturday, at around 14:30 P.M., when he helped an injured young woman reach safety. Elisha, who arrived at that time, no longer saw him. This is a large compound, so it is very possible that Elyakim's abduction took place when Elisha was already there.
"I started looking for my brother. I knew he was there, and I assumed he was probably doing something, because there was no way he would wait somewhere or hide. It was clear to me that there was a good chance I would find it dumped somewhere. I showed people a picture of him, asked if anyone knew, and got all kinds of clues. Everyone told me they had seen him, but no one could tell me exactly where he was or what was going on with him. I still have a feeling of missing out – I was there, damn it. But let it be clear to you - we will bring him back."
As the wounded and dead were being evacuated from the festival compound, Elisha began searching for his brother and realized that Elyakim had last been seen around 14:30 P.M. Elisha did not see him, and Elijah may have been kidnapped when Elisha was already operating in the party compound
After two hours, the brigade sergeant, after realizing that the fighting at the party was under control, decided to join the rest of Givati's forces in the village of Gaza. "It was really hard for me to get out, because I hadn't found my brother yet, but I understood that I trust the IDF, and that everyone there will make every effort. I left them a picture of my brother and left."
In the Bari area, they encountered terrorists, eliminated them and continued on their way. "There were real horrors all the way, things beyond what you can imagine in your worst nightmare. I suppressed the sights – another vehicle of terrorists, more dead soldiers – just to get to the village of Gaza as quickly as possible."
Fierce battles in the village of Gaza
At the entrance to the village of Gaza, they discovered that they were at the heart of a bloody battle. "Every force that came in was hijacked. A bulletproof vehicle enters intact and leaves broken with wounded and dead." At first, Elisha did not enter the kibbutz, because his car was not armored. Finally, tired of waiting, he and his friend found a creative solution. "We saw an abandoned David jeep and 'confiscated' it. We went in and started evacuating the wounded. Everything was carried out with a crazy noise of explosions. Missiles, tanks. And I go in and out with other wounded."
No less than 200 wounded Elisha and his comrades bravely rescued from the killing valley that day. "We were shot at quite a bit," he says. Several members of his crew were wounded, including people from other units who had worked with him for hours, whom he did not even know. "Four people who were with me for two days in the Hummer were injured, some of them are still hospitalized."
"In the village of Gaza, we worked 50 hours without sleep. Sometimes we got a location, but the terrorists arrived before us. You go inside and find bodies. On Tuesday, we rescued an elderly woman who survived in the safe room with two bananas and half a liter of water, when her husband died next to her."
One of the rescues left a particularly harsh mark on him. "There was someone who gave birth two days earlier by cesarean section and couldn't walk. I was holding her two-day-old baby. In another case, there was a woman with a small baby and a 3 and a half year old girl, the same age as my daughter. We gave them five minutes to organize their whole lives and then leave without looking back. The girl disturbed Mom from getting organized, so I played with her. I asked her for a hug. It was insanely powerful. To reach them, I risked my life dozens of times. Bullets whistle above you, and then you arrive and discover a girl who has done nothing and just wants to live. It's tough, but I bit my lip and carried on.
"We worked without sleep for 50 hours, extracting more and more. There were incidents in which we were given a location, but the terrorists arrived before us. You go inside and find bodies. We knew there were terrorists on the ground, so we turned the dead terrorists over and took their weapons in ZAKA bags. The activity continued. Even on Tuesday, we still rescued an elderly woman from home. She survived days with two bananas and half a liter of water in a perforated safe room, while her husband lay dead next to her. It's incomprehensible."
"Hamas has to beg us to return the abductees. We have to get them to offer us to take everything just so we stop killing them. The IDF knows how to hit them hard enough and does so to make it happen."
Entered Gaza twice a day
The armored personnel carriers and tanks of Givati's brigade combat team were lined up when I arrived at the assembly area about a week and a half after the terrible massacre. That evening, I spoke to Elisha for the first time on the phone. A news item later published in the daily newspaper said: "There will be time for family pain, but right now we have to win."
"When we returned to the Yemen field after three days of fighting, I started to catch up on what was happening with Elyakim," he says. "For ten days he was declared missing, until finally we got the word that he had been kidnapped. As far as I was concerned, it was clear to me that if he was missing or not, alive or dead, I had something to do. I'm fighting. It was clear to me that we weren't going home until we entered Gaza. Even today I don't engage in speculation. I'm not interested in speculation and analysis, what they say or think, I'm involved in fighting."
"Bringing Elyakim home" - writing on a wall in Gaza that has been partially destroyed in the meantime, photo: Elisha Libman
On Friday evening, about three weeks after the massacre, a D9 bulldozer broke through the road to the Gaza Strip. The ground maneuver began. Immediately behind him was Elisha, leading the force. "We brought the first forces into Gaza. I have a video of us doing Kabbalat Shabbat while the first bulldozer passes. You don't hear anything because of the noise of the tanks, but even so, it's insanely powerful. We're finally on our way in."
Since that day, he has been making the journey again and again, in a Hummer jeep, leading logistical convoys to the Gaza Strip. Three fighters were killed alongside him. According to him, quite a few of the entrances are accompanied by fire. "We were shot at quite a lot, but we always won. Outside Gaza, I drive cautiously these days, because what goes through my mind is that I don't feel like dying or being injured like that, I have all the fighting to do. During the first two weeks, every entry included encounters – gunfire, mortar shells, anti-tank fire, snipers. I've already gone through more than 20 entries into Gaza, sometimes twice a day."
Elisha's captions to his brother went viral on social media. For him, that was the goal. "As far as I'm concerned, my brother has priority, but he doesn't come at someone else's expense. If I take another kidnapper, that would be great and no less important."
The Givati Brigade is at the forefront of the fighting in the Gaza Strip, and has lost quite a few fighters. Elisha, for his part, made two significant decisions in the early days: "Precisely because my personal situation is problematic, I decided to be responsible for morale, to give the fighters strength. If someone's friend is killed, I turn to him, help him, talk to him. It gives me strength. On my Hummer there is a cooler bursting with cold drinks. There were guys who were in a bump and I came to them, gave them a bottle of water. They were finished after failing to take care of their friend. Since then every time they tell me that they remember my gesture. The second decision is that I document everything. Everything that happens is a bad movie, and to make me believe, I'm documenting."
"At every opportunity I hang a flag"
This is also why he writes dozens of inscriptions throughout Gaza, in which he mentions his kidnapped brother. "For me, it's a moral message, to prove that we're going into the board with our heads held high. We are the strong army – and we will win. I hold Hummer Israeli flags and every chance I get I stop and hang a flag. It's important to me that a soldier in Gaza who enters sees an Israeli flag, or a caption saying that we are returning the abductees. It's important to me that they know that we're against releasing terrorists, and on the other hand we're doing everything to bring Elyakim back."
What do you think of the hostage deal?
"I don't care about politics. I'm interested in one thing – how we win and bring back the hostages. As far as I'm concerned, Hamas has to beg us to return the abductees, only that has to work. We need to get Hamas to offer us to take everything just so we can stop killing them. The IDF knows how to hit them hard enough and does so to make it happen."
What would he say to his brother if he knew that Elyakim would see the message for sure? "I'll be honest – if I could say anything to him, we'd already have him. I want to tell him inside: 'Come on, come back to us already, it's not funny.'"
Elisha's captions to his brother circulated on social media and went viral. For him, that was the goal. "I believe Elyakim will only see the captions when he is with us on the way out, God willing. I guess in the places I've been he hasn't been, but you know. I trust the IDF to do the job. My brother has priority for me, but he doesn't come at someone else's expense. If I take another kidnapper, it will be excellent and no less important."
When I ask him what he would say to his brother if he knew for sure that Elyakim would see the message, he replies purposefully: "I'll say it honestly – if I could tell him something, he'd already be with us. I want to say to his face: Come on, come back to us already, it's not funny."
Since October 7, Elisha has been fighting or preparing to fight. On the home front, his wife and daughters are waiting for him. "Since the beginning of the fighting, my wife has been with the girls and coordinates everything related to my brother, who was also a good friend of hers. She works a lot behind the scenes. She also volunteers in Tena Omrim's alert squad. She signed the weapon that I signed. It gives me the strength to keep going." When I ask Elisha if he is religious, given his family's background, he replies, "I am secular and observant, and my wife is religious."
Tzofit, Elisha's wife. "Gives me the strength", photo: Arik Sultan
Elisha is aware that his job is dangerous, as he repeatedly enters and leaves Gaza. "Three fighters were killed next to me in three different incidents. Does it scare me? I don't deal with that. I believe that there is a God in heaven and He is the one who decides. It must be said that we do not enter like phalanges but as an army, protected and ready for battle. True, there are times when I bend down when I hear the whistles of bullets and think about the fact that I said the prayer of the way, that God decides what will happen to me and that I have to carry out my mission. God is with us. I feel it – unequivocally. A mortar shell fell right next to me, my Hummer was hit. Behind me sat a guy whose bag had been hit by bullets. I feel like I'm fighting with a bunch of heroes. People who have a lot to lose and are doing everything so that our people will win.
"Since the beginning of the fighting, my wife Tzofit has also been with our daughters and coordinates everything related to my brother. She works a lot behind the scenes. In addition, she volunteers in Tena Omer's alert squad and signed the weapon that I signed."
"One of the most important things to me is to bring about the unity that currently exists in the people that will remain. When a person stops me on the street and brings me something, I tell him: 'Forget what you brought me, take on something. Smile at the people you meet, be nicer. Maybe it will strengthen unity and strengthen us.' Smile, that's enough for me."
shishabat@israelhayom.co.il
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