“I especially thought about my child,” confides Adrien, his voice trembling. The Frenchman was on vacation a few kilometers from the Gaza Strip, with his wife and their infant, when the Hamas attack took place on Saturday. Housed in the kibbutz of Gevim, just below Sderot, they lived in isolation for 24 hours before fleeing to reach Tel Aviv. The young father, who is trying to return to France, agreed to tell 20 minutes his last four days.
Saturday, shortly before 5 a.m., Adrien and his wife were putting their 9-month-old baby back to bed, to whom they had just given a bottle, when they heard an alarm sound. Briefed by the in-laws, they know what that means. They also know that being so close to the Gaza Strip, they only have fifteen seconds to get to safety. “We took our child and ran to the shelter of the house. In the seconds that followed, we heard the firing of interceptor missiles and missiles falling in the distance. It all happened very quickly. There were several waves of rockets, it sounded almost continuously for several minutes. »
Face to face with Hamas soldiers
Meanwhile, in his shelter, Adrien scrolls on his smartphone. He quickly discovered the scale of the Hamas attack. “I saw the alerts about potential intrusions, which was even more worrying. Especially since outside, we could already hear gunshots. »
A few minutes later, his wife received a message on the kibbutz WhatsApp group. Hamas soldiers are at the entrance to the neighborhood. “At the first alert, volunteers who were securing the kibbutz went out and found themselves face to face with terrorists who were trying to enter through the gate. As they encountered resistance, the Hamas soldiers preferred to leave. Without this resistance, the Gevim kibbutz would surely have been part of the dark list of those massacred. » Less than 9 km away, that of Kfar Aza was the target of a massacre on a vast scale.
Caulked for 24 hours
After the attack, the couple remained cooped up in the house for 24 hours. “The night from Saturday to Sunday was punctuated by gunshots. There was fighting in Sderot and the surrounding kibbutzim. Despite the closed shutters, we saw flashes when there were attacks. » The couple now has only one idea in mind: to escape from Gevim to reach Tel Aviv, much further from the Gaza Strip.
On Sunday, while Israeli soldiers were securing the area around the neighborhood, the family took advantage of a lull to escape. “As we left, we saw the volunteers’ vehicles riddled with bullets. It looked like a scene from a movie. There was not ten square centimeters of sheet metal that was not perforated. » The couple decides to take a detour to reach Tel Aviv, because the road to Sderot is not yet secure. “There were still terrorists in Sderot, and the road leading to Tel Aviv corresponds to the corridor over which the rockets flew, so there was a strong risk that one would fall on that axis. »
“This detail will haunt me all my life”
The family chose to go south and then go back to Tel Aviv. “We went along the route that the terrorists had taken the day before. For kilometers, we saw vehicles riddled with bullets, set on fire, gutted. I remember very well a car on which we saw the bloody mark of the hand of a person who surely wanted to escape to save his life. This detail will haunt me for the rest of my life. » Adrien nevertheless considers himself lucky. When he crossed the road, the Israeli army had just recovered all the bodies strewn on the asphalt. “Within a few hours, we would have seen them all. »
The family was able to join a kibbutz in Palmachim, south of Tel Aviv. “It’s a different atmosphere. There, we have 90 seconds to take shelter. It’s almost luxury. The shots are less dense, less frequent. It’s much more bearable. »
Even if Adrien says he is “much more serene”, the forty-year-old has only one objective: to return to France as quickly as possible. “Unfortunately, many European airlines have canceled their flights and all those maintained are under attack. » The family should take off for Paris on Thursday, but Adrien fears that their flight will be canceled. He admits, he is still stressed. In his head, only one question: “How am I going to evacuate my child?” »