The catastrophic toll of death and destruction in Gaza, has somewhat overshadowed the events of 7th October 2023 that set them in motion. This book is an account of that day from a journalist of the left Israeli paper Haaretz who lived in the Kibbutz of Nahal Oz and who sheltered with his family in the safe room of their house for 10 hrs until rescued by his father and a contingent of IDF soldiers.
It’s a harrowing, claustrophobic account of fear and of bravery. The book is also interspersed with chapters on the history of the kibbutz movement – effectively socialist collectives where everyone earned the same and pooled their labour for the common good. The supreme irony that the biggest casualties of that day were those most sympathetic to the Palestinian cause whilst the right-wing Israelis were untouched will not be lost on the reader.
In brief, Tibon woke up to the sound of gunfire and explosions. Occasional mortar attacks had happened before as this kibbutz was only 300 metres from the Gaza border – too close for the Iron Dome defence to operate. Tibon ushered his wife and two daughters into the safe room. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time to get clothes, toys or food nor to pick up Pluto the Labrador. Gunfire was something new and scary. Tibon realised that this attack was different. Hamas troops were clearly outside, and he knew the safe room would not sustain a human attack – they were built to withstand mortars and rockets and although they were locked from the inside the doors were not designed to withstand human assault.
Tibon’s phone battery was fading fast, but he managed to get a message to his father – a retired army general living. The heroic drive of General Tibon and his wife from Tel Aviv to the kibbutz armed with nothing more than a pistol is a big part of the book. The challenge for Tibon was to keep the children quiet. He knew that their best chance of survival was to make Hamas think there was no-one home and move on to the next house. At the end of the ordeal, several families were found massacred in their safe rooms.
The death toll in this Kibbutz was 14 with a number of hostages taken, 4 of whom remain in captivity. The toll was less than other Kibbutz and considerably less than the 300 killed at the music festival. This was because a heroic defence was made by the kibbutz security guards using their armoured land rover. Despite sustained attack and awful airless conditions inside it which caused one of them to pass out, they patrolled for 10 hours shooting attackers and liberating trapped families. Controversailly they also shot Gaza civilians who followed Hamas fighters into houses to loot them. They took the view that these civilians would have killed anyone inside who resisted their attempts to loot or would have told Hamas of their presence.
The slow and uncoordinated response of the IDF to the attack was because Hamas attacked the local troop bases and police station to keep them pinned down. They also successfully disrupted communications.
The historical bits of the book are very interesting too. In the 1970s a bus ran to Gaza and at weekends, Kibbutz residents would catch it to go to the beach in Gaza. Coming back they would walk into Gaza City and eat at a restaurant before catching the book back. Palestinians from Gaza were also employed at the camp. The sealing of the border after later clashes put an end to this interface.
The subtitle of the book is “a story of betrayal, survival and hope” and I was waiting for what the author thought that “hope” might look like, but it never came. Nobody has moved back to nahal Oz and Tibon’s sign off is worth quoting:
“There are no leaders in this land these days – not on the Israeli side or on the Palestinian one. In their place are psychopaths and egomaniacs, some of whom dream of endless war and of annihilating the other side, whatever the cost; others are too weak and feckless to stand up to those who have dragged all of us into this nightmare”
“The Gates of Gaza” by Amir Tibon (July 2024) is published by Scribe and is available from Amazon at all good book stores.
After a career of 27 years in railway management and 7 as a Non Exec NHS Trust Director, 2 of them as Vice Chair of Manchester Mental Health, Harper retired to West Donegal with his husband and two cats to grow fruit and veg. A former member of the GB Labour Party he served as a County Councillor and a Parliamentary candidate. He is a member and canvasser for Alliance but writes in a personal capacity.
Discover more from Slugger O’Toole
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
