As they mark six months of war, Kfar Aza residents tentatively plan their return home
At a press event this week, displaced Gaza border residents say they are still processing the trauma of Oct. 7 and fear for their five living hostages still held by Hamas
Kibbutz Kfar Aza resident Liran Berman, 36, has traveled worldwide to petition world leaders to help free his twin younger brothers Ziv and Gali, 26, held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since the terror groups’ murderous onslaught on October 7.
But when he isn’t speaking to the press or foreign dignitaries, Berman makes a weekly pilgrimage to the ruins of Kibbutz Kfar Aza to spend time with his brothers.
“We are still stuck in October 7,” he told reporters on Wednesday at a press event in the central Israel Kibbutz Shefayim where Kfar Aza residents were evacuated.
“I go to Kfar Aza once a week because it’s the closest I can get to them… I sit outside [their rooms] for two or three hours, speaking with them. And they are one and a half kilometers across the border [in the tunnels].”
After six months of war, the residents of Kibbutz Kfar Aza are processing their trauma from October 7 while tentatively looking toward a brighter future in a temporary Negev home, they told reporters on Wednesday.
Kibbutz Kfar Aza’s western border is just two kilometers from northern Gaza. Through living so close to the border, the residents were already intimately familiar with the Israel-Hamas conflict and the dangers of rocket fire from Gaza.
But October 7 was a nightmare they could never have imagined.
The kibbutz lost 61 of its 950 residents in the brutal Hamas invasion that marked the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. Two more members were mistakenly killed by IDF soldiers in Gaza in December, bringing the total to 63.
Nineteen were taken to Gaza as hostages from Kfar Aza, of whom 11 have returned to Israel. Two hostages were killed in captivity, and five are assumed to be still alive.
In total, Hamas slaughtered some 1,200 people on October 7 and took 253 hostages. Tens of thousands of Israelis were internally displaced, including Kibbutz Kfar Aza.
Nearly half of Kfar Aza residents live in Kibbutz Shefayim in both the kibbutz’s hotel and newly constructed mobile homes.
Simona Steinbrecher, mother of Doron Steinbrecher, who has been in captivity in Gaza for six months, said, “I go to sleep every [night] with her voice in my ear and wake up with her voice in the morning.”
Steinbrecher begged the reporters to publicize her daughter’s story. She drew attention to a picture of Doron before the kidnapping, comparing it with a still from a video that Hamas put out in January, showing a marked decline in physical well-being, struggling to describe the brutality she imagined her daughter was experiencing at the hands of Hamas.
The community currently receives a variety of recovery services, including psychiatry, education and trauma treatment.
The kibbutz members have also established their own schools in and around Kibbutz Shefayim and a base for their chapter of the Scouts youth group. There is also a center for therapeutic handicrafts in honor of Livnat Kutz, who was murdered along with her family on October 7 and ran programs that integrated ancient handicrafts into school curriculums in the Sha’ar Hanegev region in Israel’s south.
The crafts include anything from drawing with pen and paper to woodworking and pottery, providing a much-needed physical outlet for stress and trauma.
“I go [to pottery] once a week,” said resident Shachar Tzuk, 32, who lost several close friends and family members on October 7. “I take my frustration out on the clay.”
“Doing pottery means that you can’t have a panic attack. You have to be focused on the clay in the moment — just you and the mug. So, for a few hours, once a week… I have no panic attacks,” said Tzuk.
Victor Weinberger, director of planning and strategy for Kibbutz Kfar Aza, said these services are funded by philanthropic donations he and his colleagues have raised over the last six months.
Weinberger also said that if they receive sufficient funds, the community plans to move to Kibbutz Ruhama in the fall and hopes to return to Kibbutz Kfar Aza by the end of 2025.
Ruhama is in the same regional council area as Kibbutz Kfar Aza, but gets far less rocket fire from Gaza as it is further inland. Moving there would allow residents to return to their school district and workplaces while their homes are rebuilt.
Weinberger added that not all residents of Kibbutz Kfar Aza want to move back to the Gaza border area, explaining that young parents with small children are particularly hesitant.
He added that the move to Kibbutz Ruhama will require financial assistance from the government. Weinberger remained diplomatic regarding Israel’s government’s actions, but was skeptical about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s willingness to assist his community and others like it.
“We have a prime minister who has refused to say the word ‘kibbutz’ or ‘kibbutznik’ to this day,” he said. “We’re not getting the money that we need.”
