Yoel Berger and Marina Almagor
Yael, Eshel, and their three children—Daniel (17), Yiftah (12), and Stav (8)—Remained on Saturday morning in their safe room. Eshel, a lieutenant colonel in the IDF reserves, armed himself with an M16 rifle and gave Yael his pistol. He later ventured out to bring two neighboring families, his father, and his mother, to safety.
The Nitzan family (right: Daniel, Yael, Stav and Yiftah, Eshel). Photograph: Courtesy of the family
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On Saturday, October 7th, Yael was jolted awake by explosions and red alert sirens. At the same time, her husband, Eshel, was in the living room. He had planned to go for a bike trip but was delayed and never left the house. Their children also woke up, and the entire family rushed to their safe room. With the window still open, they witnessed rockets being intercepted above their Moshav before quickly closing the window.
In their rush to the safe room, the family had no time to grab their mobile phones. During a brief lull, Yael ran outside to retrieve her mobile. At the same time, power and water outages began in the moshav, and the internet connection was disrupted.
Despite communication difficulties, the Nitzan family received a call from their neighbor, Benny Moore, who works at the Ben Gurion International Airport. Benny informed them that he was on his way home and asked the Nitzan family to check on his wife, Meital, and their two children to guarantee their safety. Eshel promised him to visit them once the rocket barrages stopped. Realizing the severity of the situation, Eshel, a lieutenant colonel in the IDF reserves and the Moshav emergency squad member, wore a bulletproof vest and retrieved an M16 rifle from his safe room's vault. Just minutes after the call, Benny encountered terrorists on his way near the Yad Mordechai intersection. His car was sprayed with bullets, and he was injured.
In addition to his M16 rifle, Eshel retrieved his pistol from the vault. He briefly showed Yael how to use it, and she stood guard at the safe room door with a bullet loaded. Eshel then left the house to bring his neighbor’s family and his own parents, who are also residents of the moshav, to the Nitzan’s safe room.
Eshel discovered that his 77-year-old mother had gone for a walk earlier that morning and was missing. He attempted to call her, but she didn't answer.
Eshel patrolled outside his house with his rifle. He managed to contact his mother, who was hiding alone in a shelter and worked to find a way to bring her to safety. Meanwhile, Meital, Benny Moore’s wife, arrived at the Nitzan safe room with her two children. Eshel’s father and another neighboring family also joined Yael in the safe room. Yael handed the gun to the father of the newly arrived family. From that moment on, they would remain in the safe room for hours, without water, electricity, or the ability to use the toilet.
Benny Moore, the Nitzan family's neighbor, managed to reach the moshav via a side road, accompanied by another moshav resident and a reserve officer from the IDF's Givati Brigade. Benny and the officer arrived at the Nitzan home, where they joined Eshel to patrol around the property.
After spending four and a half hours hiding alone in a shelter, Eshel’s mother ran to a neighbor’s house, where she knocked on the door and was let in. Four terrorists arrived, likely intending to loot the house, but the moshav's emergency squad quickly arrived at the scene and stopped them. Eshel eventually reached his mother and brought her home with him.
Throughout this entire time, there was no significant presence of security forces in the moshav, leaving the residents to defend their community on their own. At one point, a group of soldiers arrived and passed by the Nitzan family home, which is located near the moshav's entrance. Since Netiv HaAsara has no street names, Eshel had to map the moshav for the soldiers.
The family decided to leave the house and flee the moshav. Yael packed their personal belongings into two garbage bags, gathered clothes in a laundry tub, and got into the car with the children and their dog. They traveled in a convoy of five cars, accompanied by a military jeep, heading toward her parents' home in Jerusalem. As they left the moshav, Yael asked her children not to look out the window, hoping to shield them from the chaos unfolding around them. Eshel stayed behind to assist his parents.
After ensuring his parents were safely evacuated from the moshav, Eshel reunited with his wife and children in Jerusalem.
The family and other moshav members were initially evacuated to the Ya’arim Hotel in Kibbutz Ma’ale HaHamisha. Two months later, they relocated to a rental in Tel Aviv, and a few months later, they moved again to Moshav Ge’a in southern Israel.
Over 11 months, the family relocated five times. By late September, they returned to their home in Netiv HaAsara.
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
