Nir Oz members return to kibbutz to commemorate two years since attack

Members of Kibbutz Nir Oz visit their former home in the largely destroyed community to mark two years since the October 7 attack.

Arriving in a convoy from Kiryat Gat, where the community has relocated temporarily, kibbutz members visit the community’s cemetery and hold a ceremony to commemorate those lost and call for the release of members still being held hostage.

Sagui Dekel-Chen, who was released from Gaza in February, as part of phase one of a mediated ceasefire, says at the ceremony that it is his first visit to the cemetery since being freed, but that he visited it in his imagination while held in Gaza “without knowing who the names are, without knowing how small some of the coffins are.”

“Somehow, in a dizzying way, I survived, I am above all this, but not after all this,” he says through tears.

The kibbutz was largely destroyed on October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists entered all but six of over 200 homes in the small community and either murdered or kidnapped one of every four residents — 117 people out of some 400.

Of those abducted, nine are still being held in Gaza, of whom five of are believed to still be alive. Pictures of the nine were carried by the convoy.

Dafna Margalit, widow of Eliyahu Margalit, who was murdered by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 and his body abducted to Gaza, says her return to “God’s little plot in Nir Oz” will be a “return to life,” although real rebuilding will only come when her husband and the other hostages are returned.

Nir Oz is being renovated and rebuilt, with the first cohort of residents expected to move into the so-called Pioneers’ neighborhood in December.