The current war has revealed many stories of heroism and heroic operations of citizens who fought and saved lives. One of them is the story of the heroism of Major General Ret. Noam Tibon.
As soon as he realized that the situation was not normal and that terrorists had taken over the kibbutzim, Noam put on his uniform and together with his wife, Gali, went to rescue their son and the members of their family in Nahal Oz. The wounded were evacuated to a hospital, and Noam continued to fight together with the security forces in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. They eliminated the terrorists who had barricaded themselves around the house of his son and his family members, and Noam rescued them, as well as other residents.
Noam Tibon is our hero who preferred to give the stage to his own personal heroes.
Maj-Gen. Ret. Noam Tibon:
Kibbutz Nahal Oz, where my son Amir, his wife, Miri, and two daughters, Galia and Carmel, had built their home, is a community of heroes. For seventy years this kibbutz, the closest place in Israel to Gaza City, has been holding “the heavy gates of Gaza” on its shoulders, as Moshe Dayan said in a speech he gave there in the 1950s. The kibbutz was hit by thousands of rockets and mortars over the years, and on October 7 it was one of the first places in Israel attacked during the Hamas invasion.
One of the first Israelis to stand up to those vicious terrorists and fight them was Ilan Fiorentino, the security coordinator of the kibbutz. Ilan went out of his home that morning to rescue a teenage boy who had gone out for a run and found himself under a barrage of rockets. The boy’s mother called Ilan and asked him to help. Moments before the first Hamas cell entered the kibbutz, Ilan found the boy, drove him to his own house, and asked his wife, Sharon, to take him to their safe room, together with their three daughters. Then he turned around and went out to fight the invaders. Ilan died in that fight.
His deputy, Nissan Dekalo, took his place. Together with another member of the local security team, Beri Meirovich, they fought the terrorists in the kibbutz for long hours. They were joined by a small unit of Border Patrol fighters who were stationed in the kibbutz the night before. They were 13 fighters up against more than 100 Hamas terrorists. They managed to kill and wound many terrorists, but one of the officers, Ya’akov Krasninsky from Jerusalem, died in combat. Five others were wounded.
The first military force that tried to reach Nahal Oz and join the battle were five officers and soldiers from Maglan, a special forces unit. They encountered a group of terrorists on the main road and fought a difficult battle, killing terrorists but also suffering casualties. Three of the brave heroes – Chen Buchris, Yiftah Ya’avetz, and Afik Rosenthal – died in combat. The wounded continued the fight, and I was able to join them a short time later in my own journey to reach the kibbutz. I had only a pistol with me, but I was able to reach Buchris’s body and take his weapon and with it, help finish the job. These heroes opened the road to Nahal Oz and allowed a larger IDF force to arrive.
Nahal Oz lost 14 members on that dark day, and it still has two in the hands of Hamas in Gaza. But thanks to the heroism of Ilan Fiorentino, Ya’akov Krasninsky, Chen Buchris, Yiftah Ya’avetz, Afik Rosenthal, and every other officer, soldier, and citizen who participated in the fighting on that day, the kibbutz did not suffer much heavier losses like other communities in the region. These heroes, together with the soldiers of Maglan and Givati who cleared the kibbutz in the afternoon, saved dozens of lives. The community, and more importantly, the State of Israel, owes them an eternal debt for what they did on October 7.
As a community of heroes, I have no doubt that the people of Nahal Oz will rise from this terrible moment and rebuild their lovely home. I’m ashamed of how this government abandoned them and let them down, but I’m proud of the support they have been receiving from Israeli society since October 7.
Most of all, I’m proud of them – for protecting the border all these years and are already planning how to return home to Nahal Oz.
This article was written in cooperation with Noam Tibon