report
They provide passing soldiers with food, they mourn and try to strengthen each other: the otherwise divided Israeli population sticks together in these times. Many are still looking for relatives.
What sounds like a party is actually pure solidarity. Bet Kama is little more than a gas station, about 20 kilometers east of the Gaza Strip. Heavy transport vehicles with tanks drive past outside, and there are soldiers everywhere. Khorim and his friends have set up something here: “Barbecue for the IDF” – that is, the Israeli armed forces – is written on his T-shirt. You can smell that too.
“This is where the soldiers gather. From here they go into battle,” explains Chorim. “It’s important to us that they set off with a full stomach. In the hour of need, the entire people of Israel unite, regardless of whether they are right or left. Here we don’t look at politics. We see our brothers and see the victory of the state Israel.”
Volunteers want to encourage the soldiers
Israel has massed 360,000 soldiers around the Gaza Strip. Villages were evacuated. Many expect troops to invade. Before that, many volunteers want to encourage the soldiers. Here at the gas station they hand out T-shirts, hygiene products and food.
Margalit is also standing at a stand where the soldiers help themselves; the items were donated. “These are the people who brought us donations today. We organized ourselves there, we brought together helpers who treated everyone to food. God be blessed. That’s how we are. We are simple people, we love everyone,” says Margalit .
More than 100 dead in one town
The horror is just a few kilometers away. Not far from here are the towns where Hamas terrorists invaded and slaughtered people. At least 1,200 Israelis have died. More than 100 in the town of Be’eri alone.
Desperate search for mother of a three-year-old
An apartment in Tel Aviv – three-year-old Geffen plays with her uncles and aunts. Everyone tries their best to ensure that the atmosphere is not too subdued. But everyone here’s thoughts are with someone who isn’t there: Yarden, Geffen’s mother.
She was with Geffen and her husband Alon in Be’eri last Friday. Alon’s family lives there, there was a meal. In the morning, the Hamas terrorists came, broke into the house, dragged Yarden, Alon and Geffen into a car and sped off towards the Gaza Strip. Levi, Yarden’s brother, describes what happened next: “They were very lucky, got out of the car and started running. And then Yarden gave little Geffen to Alon, because he can run faster. And he got away and was able to hide . 24 hours with a three-year-old child. Without drinking or eating. But we don’t know what happened to Yarden.”
No sign of life, no trace
They organized a private search. Some of the family drive south every day to look for Yarden. Also her 70-year-old father. Levi, the brother, says they haven’t received a call from an official body yet. Yarden has Israeli and German citizenship.
The chances that she was able to hide and survive are dwindling by the day. The family’s greatest hope, as bitter as it sounds, is that Yarden is still alive and was kidnapped as a hostage in the Gaza Strip, like around 150 others. But there is no sign of life, no trace.
And so the family tries to offer at least some normality for Geffen and her father Alon, says Levi. “It’s hard to have any kind of routine. We feel the big question hanging over our heads. And I’m always afraid of the moment when Geffen asks: Where’s mom?”