Empty seder tables at Nir Oz as survivors mark an unhappy Passover without hostages
Released hostage Liat Atzili and other Nir Oz members demand freedom for their family members and friends, say they’ve felt abandoned by the government on and since October 7
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
Survivors of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Kibbutz Nir Oz gathered Thursday morning in the kibbutz dining hall, which was set up for a mock Passover seder — now with dozens of kibbutz members gone.
With the holiday beginning in 11 days, hostages’ family members, including one freed hostage whose husband was killed in captivity, spoke of the holiday’s themes of spring and freedom, and the impossibility of celebrating the festival with so many members still held captive in Gaza.
The 69-year-old kibbutz, located 2.8 kilometers (1.7 miles) from Gaza, lost more than a quarter of its 400 members on October 7, with 46 people murdered, including entire families, and 71 people taken hostage. Fourteen Thai citizens who worked at Nir Oz were also murdered that morning.
Now, 187 days later, 36 Nir Oz inhabitants are still held hostage and presumed alive, along with the remains of 10 others killed in captivity. Another 40 abducted kibbutz residents were released at the end of November.
Earlier this month, the body of Nir Oz hostage Elad Katzir, who was murdered in captivity, was brought back to Israel and buried in the kibbutz cemetery.
Released hostage Liat Atzili, whose husband Aviv Atzili was taken hostage and murdered in captivity, said that like her, Katzir had been held in an apartment for the duration of his captivity.
The history and civics teacher, whose husband was a member of the kibbutz security team, described “the dusty apartment in Khan Younis” where she was trapped for 54 days.
She said she initially wasn’t angry about the country’s effective abandonment of Nir Oz on October 7, when residents were left to fend for themselves for long hours before the military retook control. But the army’s accidental killing of hostages Yotam Haim, Alon Shimriz and Samer Talalka on December 15, along with the recent discovery of Katzir’s fate, “cracked my inner conviction.”
“The hostages need to be released because of the moral obligation of the state [and] the leaders need to resign,” said Atzili, who is also a guide at Holocaust remembrance center Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
“Elad spent most of his time in captivity in an apartment, much like me, but his story ended tragically. All of the hostages have no time. None of them should have died, they should have been home a long time ago.”
Atzili, now a widow with three children, said she wouldn’t detail her thoughts on the state of the war, but mentioned the “moral bankruptcy and shirking of responsibility of the government.”
Her words were echoed by other family members, including Noam Peri, daughter of hostage Chaim Peri, who will turn 80 this weekend in captivity.
“My father, and all of Nir Oz, fought alone for eight hours on October 7,” said Noam Peri. “Do not talk about a ceasefire when our loved ones are still held in tunnels.”
Peri recalled the many times the family had celebrated Passover in the kibbutz dining hall, with her father always seated at the head of a table, and raising an additional fifth glass to the traditional four cups of wine — to the soccer team Hapoel Tel Aviv.
“My father is a man who celebrates his freedom to his fullest,” said Peri. “He’s always planning his next project.”
One long table on Thursday honored the remaining Nir Oz hostages, with yellow plastic chairs for each captive, and no one to enjoy the packages of matzah, bottles of grape juice and Haggadah pamphlets set out for them.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum also showed a video of Chaim Peri, at last year’s Passover seder.
There were seats for the youngest hostages, preschooler Ariel Bibas, with a highchair for his baby brother, Kfir, now a year old, for their parents Shiri and Yarden, for murdered Nir Oz hostages Tamir Adar and Maya Goren, for hostages Peri and Amiram Cooper, and the many others who are still missing.
“This dining hall will be empty this year. No one will talk about freedom because no one feels that way this year,” said Chaim Peri’s wife Osnat.
It was a sentiment repeated by all the speakers, including Ofri Bibas-Levy, the sister of hostage Yarden Bibas.
Bibas-Levy mentioned Shiri Bibas’s 33rd birthday that will coincide with seder night, marking the ancient date when the Israelites were freed from slavery.
She wept quietly, talking of her nephew, Ariel, who would have been allowed to stay up late on seder night, joining his older cousins in singing ‘Ma Nishtana,’ the Four Questions that are part of the Haggadah reading.
“Will they be granted freedom?” asked Bibas-Levy. “Cry out for justice, for humanity, let my family go, let our people go.”
Yael Adar, a kibbutz member whose son Tamir, 38, was injured on October 7, taken hostage and then killed in captivity, spoke about her children who are the third generation of the kibbutz, and her mother-in-law, Yaffa Adar, 80, who was taken hostage and released at the end of November.
Adar described their bucolic kibbutz life in which families shared everything they had. Saturday, October 7, had been scheduled as the last Saturday of the kibbutz pool season.
Tamir had gone into his safe room with his wife and two young children early that morning when the rocket sirens sounded. Within minutes, he was called to help secure the kibbutz with the rest of the emergency team.
He was injured and taken hostage, said Adar, tearing up. She called her son a hero who fought beside his friends, preventing further murders and kidnappings of kibbutz members.
“We haven’t heard one ‘sorry’ from the government,” said Adar. “We didn’t see any bullets fired by the army, just our team.”
She demanded greater support from the government, calling on politicians to meet with each family to ask how they could help.
“I think of all those who are lost,” said Adar, weeping. “I don’t need to ask ‘Ma Nishtana’ (‘What Has Changed’) this year. The State of Israel abandoned its borders, it abandoned those who were partying, it abandoned its citizens and Nir Oz, and the ability to bring about change is to bring the hostages home.”
