Outpacing state, Brothers in Arms becomes 1st to renovate homes damaged on October 7
Nonprofit takes on project initiated by grandson of murdered Kibbutz Kfar Aza co-founder, who says ‘no need to wait for the state’ with volunteers lining up to help
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
The first Gaza-border neighborhood to be fully renovated since the October 7 massacre last year will be in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, thanks to the initiative of the 32-year-old grandson of a woman murdered on that day, and the Brothers and Sisters in Arms organization.
Omri Ronen was born on the kibbutz. When he was young, the family moved to central Israel’s Kochav Ya’ir, but returned frequently to Kfar Aza to visit relatives, among them his grandparents.
On October 7, his widowed grandmother, Nira, 86, a co-founder of the kibbutz, was murdered in her home alongside her Filipina caregiver, Angie Aguirre.
After nearly 200 days serving in a special IDF reserve unit, Ronen — married with an eight-month-old son — visited Kfar Aza with his father to find that none of the ruins had been rebuilt.
In his grandmother’s house, he found a note in her day planner written in Arabic by one of her killers. It said, “You will die here. You won’t remain here.”
“Not only aren’t we dead, we are alive and are here to stay,” Ronen told The Times of Israel.
He approached the kibbutz’s leaders and argued that rebuilding had to start as soon as possible without waiting for the authorities. After a while, they gave him the green light.
Having protested against the government’s controversial judicial reforms with Brothers and Sisters and Arms, it was natural for him to undertake the project as part of that group.
With kibbutz approval, Ronen chose Green Floors, a neighborhood of 16 units built in the 1970s to house 17- and 18-year-old kibbutz members (Ronen’s father and aunt had both lived there). It subsequently housed other young people from the kibbutz and elsewhere.
Nobody was murdered there on October 7, unlike the adjacent neighborhood, which remains as it was until the kibbutz decides what to do with it.
“I wanted the young people’s area renovated first because the young people are the life of the kibbutz,” Ronen explained.
“The kibbutz was the life project of my grandfather and grandmother, which is why I’m so determined to continue it.”
The Green Floors units were pocked with holes from bullets and mortars, their doors and windows smashed in, and their interiors vandalized by the Hamas terrorists, Ronen said. One apartment had been burned.
When he issued a call through Brothers and Sisters in Arms for volunteers, nearly 6,000 people responded.
“Brothers in Arms have been with me from the start. They are the best people there are,” said Ronen. “We’re in a new situation. The state doesn’t know how to cope. Brothers in Arms knows how to organize and get things done. Everyone is volunteering. Even the materials are donated.”
The two-month project started during the recent Sukkot holiday. If all goes as planned, on the first night of Hanukkah, on December 25, 16 young people who lived on the kibbutz before October 7 will receive the keys to completely renovated, fully furnished apartments, complete with pergolas and exterior landscaping.
To date, around 1,000 people from all regions and sectors of society have come to the building site to help, many with no construction experience who are willing to learn on the job. On each day, someone different manages the work. (When this reporter visited, it was architect Roy Gordon).
Volunteers range from youngsters doing a year’s community service through HaShomer HaHadash (which seeks to strengthen Zionist values) to a man in his 80s.
Ronen wants to repeat the project in other communities along the Gaza border and the Lebanese one in northern Israel. He wants to get the engines of growth moving and show the authorities that it can be done. “I don’t think we need to wait for the State of Israel,” he said. “People are lining up. They want to give. It helps build resilience and takes them out of hopelessness to Zionist work. They’re excited to come.”
“We took all the units apart and just left the skeletons,” he went on. “Now we’re building.”
“The message is that they broke us, but we will build back better and more beautifully and stand up to terror. We are here to stay.”
