At 6:20 a.m. on October 7, my Canaan dog Lucy began barking. I was sleeping over at my sister and brother-in-law’s for Simchat Torah on a kibbutz in southern Israel. In a few minutes, we were all awakened by a steady rocket barrage from Gaza and the sound of the Iron Dome near the kibbutz shooting down the rockets.
I tuned in to Kan News and heard a reporter trying his best to be calm, explaining that 50 years after the Yom Kippur War, Israel had again been the target of a multi-pronged surprise assault – this time, by the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorist group that has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2006, a year after Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the territory it had captured in the Six Day War.
We huddled in the safe room, doing a jigsaw puzzle and trying to distract ourselves from the horror. It soon became clear that hundreds of Hamas gunmen had used the rockets as a cover to infiltrate into Israel, entering communities in the South, firing on soldiers and civilians, and kidnapping dozens of Israelis.
Hamas's all-out war against Israel
Hamas called it Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, and its military commander, Muhammad Deif, claimed that it was launched in retaliation for Israel’s “desecration” of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rushed to Tel Aviv for consultations with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and security chiefs. “We are embarking on a long and difficult war that was forced on us by a murderous Hamas attack,” Netanyahu declared, promising: “We will restore security to the citizens of Israel, and we will win.”
The massive Israeli counter-offensive, involving multiple air strikes on Gaza and a call-up of reservists – including one of my nephews – for a potential ground operation, was codenamed Swords of Iron.
The night before, we had hosted an IDF officer, who told me how important it was for any future ceasefire to include the return of the remains of Lt. Hadar Goldin and St.-Sgt. Oron Shaul, the two soldiers killed in Operation Protective Edge in 2014, as well as the two live civilians still being held by Hamas – Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed.
This time, Hamas took more than 100 hostages. Driving home on the night of October 8, I watched a rocket being shot down above my car, and a nearby field going up in flames. The media began announcing the names of the Israeli dead, whose numbers ultimately surpassed 1,400. They included IDF officers such as Nahal Brigade head Col. Yehonatan Steinberg; firefighters like Cpt. Shalom Tzaban, head of the Kiryat Gat fire station; officials such as Sha’ar Hanegev council head Ofir Libstein; men, women, and children.
I knew and loved Libstein, 50, a wonderful man who addressed the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) on October 5, when it joined with KKL-JNF to dedicate a rehabilitated section of the Be’eri Forest burned by arsonists launching fire kites and balloons from Gaza. “With your [bomb] shelters that you help us to buy and to put here in the area, we live better lives,” he told the Christian pilgrims from around the world.
“As the full extent of the carnage wrought by Hamas terrorists emerges, it is clear that this well-planned, Iranian-backed operation was not launched due to grievances over the Israeli ‘occupation’ or any real dangers to Al-Aqsa Mosque,” said ICEJ President Jürgen Bühler. “Rather, it was driven by the ancient ‘Spirit of Amalek.’”
Media commentators called it Israel’s 9/11 or Pearl Harbor, while world leaders roundly condemned Hamas. Some said it was Iran’s attempt to foil a peace deal between its two main foes – Israel and Saudi Arabia. Whatever the case, Israel’s mission now is to vanquish Hamas and return its hostages home.