Maor Ratz-Levi does everything to create a sense of home in the hotel room where her family is staying.
A bowl of fresh fruit is always placed on the dresser, next to the cake that is sent every Friday on behalf of Isrotel.
As someone who owned a flower shop, she also scattered around an abundance of green pots, instilling an atmosphere of calm and reminding her of the landscape where the family lived before.
Shooting and explosions near the Lebanese border // Arab Networks
"Since we left, I haven't visited the kibbutz," she says, almost apologetically.
"I have a barrier to do that and I'm not able to. I don't even miss home. The kibbutz has become a kind of military camp, and I don't want to see it like that and I don't want the children to see it in that state either. Only Yossi visits there from time to time to bring us things." .
When she lived in Elon, Maor was also the chairman of the kibbutz's association and was responsible, on a voluntary basis, for cultural and welfare issues. Today, she is the manager of the community of the evacuees at the hotel.
"I didn't want to move to an apartment, it was important to me to stay with most of the kibbutz people and this is also important for the children. Here are their friends and the school for the evacuees, which was established in Kibbutz Sde Boker. The hotel provides them with a huggable envelope and set up a play area for them. I hope to stay here until the end of the year The studies are to give the children stability."
The scene of the fall in the village of Pasuta in the Western Galilee, photo: Ill Margolin, Gini
Even before October 7, Maor and Yossi walked around with a bad feeling.
"Yossi used to run in the area and saw more and more Hezbollah positions," she continues.
"We feared the infiltration of terrorists in the north, and finally it happened in the south. Fortunately, Hamas did not coordinate the attack with Hezbollah, because the capabilities cannot be compared. In the north, they could reach as far as Haifa."
Did you have plans to leave before then?
"I had friends who prepared suitcases, but I am optimistic by nature. We lived in a green and stunning bubble, the Tuscany of the Land of Israel. Now the optimism is gone, and I hope it will return to me. We were innocent. How could we live like this with uncertain borders?"
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