"It was already whitewashed on the inside and we didn't know about it. People don't want every corner to have a memorial. When we held a discussion with members of one of the kibbutzim, they said, 'Help us, so that they don't erect a memorial in the public space for every fallen soldier.'
Ruins from the events of October 7, photo: Moshe Shai
"We are not a regulator, but we believe that between the desire to rehabilitate and develop and the desire to preserve and remember, there needs to be a balance – not all the houses to preserve, but one or two. And it's not just about kibbutzim, it's also about Sderot and Ofakim. You have to look at it as 'spatial heritage,' a concept that we promoted in the ministry over the past four years, and we never imagined would be used for this atrocity."
Creating a model for each locality
In order to preserve it, teams from the Israel Antiquities Authority were initially sent to specialize in documentation. The entire community was photographed using special drones, and selected houses – particularly damaged, for example – were documented in their current state using laser scans and photogrammetry, which is a technique for mapping and measurements.
The end result is a 3D photograph of each house from the outside and inside, so that if one day they want to recreate the results of the events, even in another place, it will be possible to get down to the nail. It was challenging work. On one occasion, the army shot down a drone, and another time a volley of gunfire missed it a bit.
Many houses were destroyed,
Ami Shahar, Head of the Built Heritage Conservation Administration at the Israel Antiquities Authority: "We create a model of each settlement, and using a drone we scan paths and streets, documenting each house individually. We started with Bari, Nir Oz, Kfar Gaza, Levels, Unknown, Reim and the area of Nova. Now we are in Dune, and we will move to Sufa and Kerem Shalom. We documented about 220 apartments and houses."
After a visit by the staff of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Yad Ben-Zvi, an institution that deals with the study of Jewish communities in the East and the history of the Land of Israel, enters the house. They mark items that they wish to preserve - plates, statues, bicycles, objects behind which there is a story.
The impressions describe the object and where it was taken from and photograph it in close-up, and then the conservators enter, who pack and transport the object to a temporary storage place. If a museum is built one day, or if they want to build a replica of the house, they will know how to exact reconstruct it.
A space of heritage houses
During the work, pieces of life were found - the juicer of the Bibas family from Kibbutz Nir Oz, children's toys, mobile devices of murdered people and more.
It is not yet clear what form the materials will take – whether at home within the kibbutz, in a museum or on the Internet. Ten years from now, a child may be able to enter a designated site, click on a map of a locality, wander its streets, enter every house and know what happened there on that cursed Shabbat. Not only in Israel but also in the world. Those who try to deny will not be able to escape the sights.
"There will be a space of heritage houses, from Kibbutz Zikim to Kerem Shalom," says the Director General of the Heritage Ministry, Netanel Isaac. "There are communities that will say, 'We want to preserve the house as it is.' Some will say they don't want to, but might be willing to build a replica. Everything will be decided in dialogue with the community.
"After all, in the end the war will end and soul-searching will take place, and it is clear to us that they will ask, 'What have you collected, what have you documented, and what is left for future generations and those who deny it?' That's why it was important for us to get to the field quickly and get out what we could."
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