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(21 days after being called in to Gaza)
To anyone who is even considering the option of ever making the move to Israel, to those who have never fathomed such a crazy proposal, to those who are seriously weighing the pros and have started packing their bags, and to those who know of someone who fits into any of these categories:
Erev Yom Ha’atzmaut (Eve of Israel Independence Day)
Usually we’d be celebrating after commemorating and remembering those who fell on Yom HaZikaron (Israel’s Day of Remembrance for IDF soldiers) the day before.
A new dimension of pain, grief, intimacy and even regret fills the atmosphere of Israel this year.
(After five weeks in Gaza, on the way home for a short break) Tzahal is doing a fantastic job in the war so far. Many terrorist facilities have been neutralised, and we are edging ever closer,
One minute’s silence.
The whole country stops what they’re doing.
Wherever we are – at home, on the highway, walking in the street, sitting in a meeting – we all stop, stand up and become silent for a minute.
Yesterday was Memorial Day in Israel. A day to remember all lives lost. Our soldiers who fought in the wars to secure our Jewish State and civilians who lost their lives in acts of terror – more than 30,000 in total.
This year, the day was particularly heavy because we’re in the midst of war with many soldiers’ and civilians’ lives lost and 132 hostages still held in Gaza.
It’s been more than seven months since the 7th October. With every 7th of the month that passes, we struggle to believe the reality we’re living in, that another month has been added to the count, and the hostages are still there.
Two hundred and thirty eight hostages – and the number has been reduced by three over the last few weeks, just because their bodies have now been found in Gaza, murdered after they were taken. Their families are crying out to be heard, to bring their loved ones home, even as they continue to bury their dead.
This picture says it all. How can I miss 249 people I’ve never even met? But it’s true!
10 November, 2023
Day 28 – Yellow Ribbons
Friday morning we woke up to join a scheduled run for three of the hostages, who have family in Raanana.
We ran for Naama Levy, 19 years old, who was captured and taken hostage to Gaza. There’s video footage of her being bundled into a jeep, with scared eyes, clothes bloodstained.
From the website set up by her parents to bring her home, here’s Naama’s story:
There is no shelter here, reads the sign blowing in the wind taped to the glass door. I have walked from one end of the namal (port) to the other looking for a cafe, not a restaurant that serves fish or chicken. I want a salad and a hot coffee with oat milk. I have found one at the northern area of the port of Tel Aviv. Not fancy but with a table near an outlet and they serve coffee.
3 November, 2023
On Monday night we had a sliver of light in the darkness.
We rejoiced at the brave rescue of one of the hostages, Ori Megidish, 19 years old, from a Gaza tunnel, by the IDF. A young girl who was taken, is now back with her family, back home.
Together with the four hostages released last week by Hamas (a mom and daughter, both US citizens who were visiting family in Israel and a couple of days later, two elderly women, aged 80 and 85), that makes five hostages out; 242 (by latest count) to go.
For some, the act of just getting to a shelter is an anxiety-producing activity, especially for families with small kids that have to go down flights of stairs to the building bomb shelter, or run to the closest one in the neighborhood. My mother’s former caretaker who now cares for a 90+ invalid woman has to leave her in her bed or her wheelchair and retreat to the shelter downstairs alone, leaving R upstairs in her apartment.
25 October, 2023
The war in Israel – Day 18
The first few days there was shock in the air. We might have to go in the mamad 1 at any time.
I didn’t want to leave my apartment, and the easy access to my mamad. Thank God, our city has been quiet, and I gradually developed the inner strength to…leave my apartment building. Then, to be able to go to my daughter’s home nearby. Days later, I felt strong enough to go to the mall. And days later, even to a nearby town.