Kakon Family
Shahar and Shlomi Mathias dedicated their lives to music, education, human rights, and their three children. On Oct 7, Rotem and his parents hid in their home's safe room. The terrorists murdered the parents while their wounded son hid for hours alone until rescued. The daughters of the family who hid apart were rescued as well.
Mathias family
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Shahar, Shlomi and their young son Rotem wake up in the morning to the sounds of explosions. Shahar and Shlomi run to the safe room that is in Rotem's room. The family's two daughters, Shir and Shaked, live in the young people's quarters in the kibbutz and hide each in their room.
Shahar reports in the family WhatsApp group that there's knocking at the door, that the house is surrounded by gunfire, and there is the sound of glass shattering at the entrance. At 07:47, Shahar sends a final message about the infiltration of terrorists. Shlomi asks Rotem to bring an extra mattress into the room to block the door. Shlomi holds the doorknob of the safe room. Shahar tells Rotem to lie between the wall and the bed; she lies over her son and covers him with her whole body.
The family hides silently in the safe room as the terrorists blow up the front door. Marco, the dog, is also in the safe room and barks at the sound of the explosion. Shlomi says he is protecting them. Shahar tells Rotem that she loves him and everything will be fine. The terrorists break the door of the safe room, shout “Allahu Akbar” and “Itbah al Yahud,” throw a grenade inside, and then spray the room with gunfire. Mother Shahar dies instantly. Father Shlomi shouts, “My hand is gone!” and Rotem hears him crying, moaning, and breathing his last breaths while the terrorists watch and laugh. Rotem is wounded by a bullet in his stomach, shrapnel in his leg, and around his eye, but his life is saved thanks to his mother, who covered him. The terrorists do not notice Rotem and leave the house.
Rotem sends a message to the extended family WhatsApp group about the death of his parents. He says that at first, some people thought it was black humor, and only a bit later, family members realized that he was serious and that their loved ones were murdered in the terrorist attack. The family continues to accompany him on WhatsApp throughout the day until he is rescued and reunited with them at the hospital.
Terrorists re-enter the house while Rotem hides under the body of his mother. They do not notice him and leave the place after about two minutes.
Rotem continues to hide under his mother's body for about 45 minutes until he has trouble breathing and moves her body away from him to inhale air. He comes out of the smoke-shrouded safe room and sees that the terrorists set fire to the living room of the house. He runs to the kitchen to drink water and then hides in the laundry room. With the help of improvised fabrics, he bandages his wounds. He said he learned how to act in an emergency with first aid videos on YouTube.
Terrorists enter the house for the third time. Rotem flees to his parents' room, lies on the floor between the wall and the bed, and covers himself with a blanket that he arranges in a way that seems like he is lying around. The terrorists enter the room and stand right next to it, they open the cabinets, take things, laugh, but do not move the blanket. According to his testimony, Rotem, “I tried not to breathe, I prayed to God, Allah, Jesus, Buddha. Just that they won't find me.”
IDF soldiers knock on the door of the house, the exhausted Rotem shouts to them “Don't kill me.” They help him get up, evacuate him to a neighbor's house and from there to Soroka Hospital where he will undergo two surgeries.
Throughout the day, Shir and Shaked each hide in their room in the young people's quarters and in the morning they lose contact and are unavailable by phone. Shaked waits for it to be quiet enough and when it gets dark outside, she decides to run to her sister's apartment. Shir hears Shaked calling her and despite fearing terrorists, she opens the door and lets her little sister in. She takes a large kitchen knife and they continue to hide together on the floor between pillows and blankets.
Shir and Shaked hear knocking at the door with calls of “IDF.” Shir replies back quietly “IDF? “, and Shaked asks her to keep quiet. They fear these are terrorists posing as soldiers. The soldiers try to open the door, light up the living room with a flashlight, storm the blinds and leave.
A neighbor from the Kibbutz continuously calls Shir after she has been rescued and manages to inform her that it is possible to get out of hiding. Shir and Shaked leave the Kibbutz in the last drive towards Gvulot.
Rotem is undergoing surgery to remove the bullet from his stomach at Soroka hospital. He undergoes another operation to remove some of the shrapnel and when he is released, he moves to his uncle's house.
Shahar and Shlomi Mathias are brought to rest at the cemetery in Omer.
Poet Rachel Shapira initiated the release of Shahar's album, on which Shahar and Shlomi started work while still alive. She is joined by Nathan Sellor, Hen-Lee Fishman, Yael Hollander, Orit Dokler, and the family. Shahar wrote and composed most of the songs and performed all of them. Some of them were composed by Shlomi, and he joined some of the songs. Also, Haim Katzman, who was also killed in Holit in the terrorist attack, played in the ensemble. The musicians Itamar Abu-Hatzira and Nadav Gabir remained among the five participants in the group. The album is expected to be released around the anniversary of the massacre.
המתחם האינטראקטיבי של מפת העוטף ב-7 באוקטובר 2023 נועד לתעד ולהנציח את האירועים שהתרחשו ביישובי עוטף עזה באמצעות תיעודים מזמן אמת, דקה אחר דקה.
הפרויקט בהליכי בנייה ותחקיר, בשלבים הבאים יתווספו נקודות רבות על המפה, לרבות בסיסי צה”ל, הרחבת אזורי המסיבות והדרכים המובילות לעוטף.
לפרטים נוספים וליצירת קשר לחצו כאן
אזהרה: התוכן מכיל תיאורים ותיעודים קשים לצפייה