In first, Smotrich visits Oct. 7-ravaged Nir Oz, says he feels ‘responsibility, guilt’
Finance minister meets with former hostages, relatives of those still captive during tour of destroyed community; former Gush Katif rabbi urges him to speak up for the hostages
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich paid a visit on Tuesday to Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the Israeli communities hit hardest in the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror onslaught, and met with relatives of the community’s hostages as well as former captives, his office and Nir Oz said in a joint statement.
The visit marked the first time the far-right minister had come to the battered kibbutz, more than 13 months after Palestinian terrorists rampaged through, killing or kidnapping 117 out of its 400 residents. There are still 29 hostages from Nir Oz held captive in Gaza. Only seven of the 220 homes in the border community were untouched by the violence of October 7.
During his visit, Smotrich visited torched and destroyed homes where atrocities were committed that day, and heard the concerns and accusations of those missing their loved ones and who are pushing the government to treat the captives as a priority.
Among those who met with the finance minister was Sharon Aloni Cunio, who was freed from captivity in Gaza last November, along with her then-three-year-old twin daughters Yuli and Emma. Her husband, their father, David Cunio is still in Gaza.
Standing in the charred remains of what had once been her family’s home, Aloni Cunio asked Smotrich to imagine himself in her shoes.
“I have children who are currently fatherless,” she said. “Think about David for a moment. We’re two kilometers from Gaza, that’s all, it’s a seven-minute drive.”
“Imagine him being so close to here, and that we can’t do anything about it,” she said, with her voice breaking. “Imagine a situation in which he’s rotting there. I have girls who ask me if their father is already dead, and I don’t even know how to answer them.”
Smotrich also spent time with Sigal Yehud, whose husband Dolev was murdered by Hamas terrorists inside the kibbutz. For eight months he was believed to be held in Gaza until in June of this year, his remains were discovered in Israeli territory.
Dolev’s sister Arbel Yehud is believed to still be captive in Gaza, along with her partner Ariel Cunio, David Cunio’s brother.
Dolev and Arbel’s father Yahi Yehud also took part in the meeting.
During the conversation, Sigal told Smotrich of the difficulties she has had to overcome, as a widowed mother to young children.
“The mental struggles are very hard,” she said. “Especially with four young children. I was left to look after them and right now I need help and someone to look after me,” she said.
He also met with Arnon Lifshitz. Arnon’s mother Yocheved was released from Gaza by Hamas on October 23, 2023, while his father Oded remains in captivity.
Smotrich was then taken on a tour of the destroyed kibbutz, whose members voted on Monday to rebuild their community. Along the way, he stopped outside the home of the Bibas family, all of whom — Yarden, Shiri and their two children, Ariel, now 5 and Kfir, 21 months — are captive in Gaza.
There, Smotrich spoke with Rabbi Reuben Netanel, who urged him to take the fight of the hostage families to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanel, a religious Zionist rabbi who served as the rabbi of Kerem Atzmona in the Gush Katif settlements prior to the 2005 Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, has become a regular fixture at protests organized by the Gaza border communities over the last year, Channel 12 reported.
“If the Bibas family, if these children, do not return, because of one reason or another, it will be a blow to morale, to unity, it will be a first-class national security event,” Netanel told Smotrich. “We know that you have the backing of the prime minister, you stand in a very strong place — your words are heard.”
He told Smotrich that while the price Israel will be required to pay for the return of the hostages will be high, it must be done as if the hostages aren’t returned “Israeli society will be damaged.”
Smotrich, along with fellow far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir, are widely seen as the main opponents in the government of a deal to free the hostages in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners and a halt to the war.
At the end of his visit, Smotrich met with Nir Oz officials, and promised to do whatever he could to help rebuild the community.
He acknowledged for the first time the feelings of guilt and responsibility he has grappled with regarding the failure of the government to prevent the massacre.
“I thank you for opening your door and your heart, this isn’t taken for granted,” he said. “This isn’t trivial, I’m not sure that in your shoes I would have been able to invite, welcome and look in the eyes of someone who after all is among those responsible for a horrific failure.”
“On a personal level, I’ve been living it, and for a year I’ve been going to sleep with this and getting up in the morning with this,” he added. “This is a different experience to yours, but [I’ve been living] with the feeling of responsibility and guilt, and mainly with the commitment to fixing whatever we can.”
The hardline minister, who has been denounced by many relatives of hostages for his opposition to most proposed deals to free their loved ones, expressed his appreciation of the residents of the Israeli kibbutzim before the attack and of their “nobility” and resolve to rebuild their shattered communities and return home.
“We are committed to returning the hostages home,” he said, but did not commit to prioritizing their return at the price of ending the war in Gaza as part of a deal. “When it comes to the moment of truth, I pray that I will have the courage to weigh things very cleanly and honestly and without prior decisions and preconceptions. That’s the only commitment I can make to you.”
While Smotrich had previously acknowledged that he holds responsibility for the failures before and during the October 7 terror onslaught, including in the weeks immediately following the massacre, Tuesday’s visit was the first time that the Religious Zionism leader spoke openly about feeling guilt.
On the contrary, he told the Kan public broadcaster in June that “the massacre has nothing to do with me, I’m not guilty,” and cast the failure as solely a military and intelligence one.
Smotrich’s visit to the kibbutz came after its members overwhelmingly voted Monday to rebuild their community, calling it “the real, meaningful victory.”
The members had urged the state to fund a large-scale, generous construction, while at the same time continuing to support those who choose not to return, due to all that they had endured.
Many Nir Oz members have been highly critical of the government throughout the war. Residents did not participate in a second state ceremony to memorialize victims of the Hamas massacres held last month close to the Hebrew date of the Hamas massacres. The controversial second ceremony followed earlier events held on October 7.
The kibbutz said at the time that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not responded to an invitation to visit the community.
