 This is Kibbutz Baeri, which sits right by the border of the Gaza Strip. Six months ago today, on October 7th, a wave of Hamas terrorists broke through the Gaza Border fence and invaded the Kibbutz, going on a rampage of murder and destruction. Many communities suffered that day, few as badly as Baeri. Nearly a tenth of the 1,000 residents here were murdered, butchered. Some 25 were taken hostage by Hamas. A little under half of that are still being held captive there or unaccounted for. Baeri has become a symbol of that terrible day. And six months on, it is also hoping to become a symbol of the renewal of this Eshko region in which it is the largest community. With me now is Simcha Grineman. He is the deputy commander of the Zakhar Search and Rescue Agency. He was one of the first of the first responders to arrive on the scene here at Baeri on that terrible day. Simcha, six months on, looking at the destruction, it's horrible to even think about what happened back then. Tell us what it was like for you when you got here to Baeri. Well, coming into the Kibbutz itself was only Monday. I understand that we're already 48 hours into the whole attack, scary, not knowing what you're going to be facing. As a Zakhar member for over 32 years, challenged with different situations around the world, seeing terror attacks, seeing earthquakes and different things, things like what we dealt over here and what we saw is unbelievable and your heart rips out. And you hardly can understand what you're really facing, what you see when you're in a situation like this. Give us a sense of the scale, not just of Baeri, but of this entire area where Zakhar was active in those days after October 7th. Well, we dealt with hundreds of bodies, talking about 1,200 civilians, over 200 soldiers, and don't forget there was 1,500 terrorists laying around the bodies of them, also that we had to deal with. When you're dealing with soldiers or terrorists, so you say, okay, we're in a war, but you're talking about civilians, families, children, elderly, men, women, what they went through in these places, we see the hostages that released what they're telling stories about what happened to them there. And we know that we have still another 134 captured and we know what we were dealing over here and it's frightening. Simka, six months on, we're still hearing right now the booms from the battle still going on there in Gaza. I know you've been someone who's been going around, you've been on speaking tours abroad. I want to just get in your sense of your feelings about here we are a half a year after that, Israel's still in the midst of that battle. Well, I'm coming back from last week, I came to speak in Tinnock, New Jersey and planning my trip. So every place I go, they plan it and they put up posters or whatever and I get a phone call Sunday that there's a whole parade and a poster series against Zaka, not about Israel. So I asked the person that called me and he said, Tim, what do they want from Zaka? He said, you're asking the wrong question because basically we are the live testimony. We, I spoke in the UN about women's rights, I spoke about whatever I dealt with the hundreds of bodies that we collected, the bodies that were disintegrated ashes, people that were killed in brutal ways that you could not imagine. This is the reason trying to say, no, nothing happened, but we are here talking about it, walking and being the live testimony, speaking about it around the world and that's hard for them to understand and to stand in front of us and really to deal with. Simka Graineman, thank you for joining us and please stay with us as we continue our special broadcast on I-24 News, straight from Kibbutz, Barry, marking six months since October 7th, six months of Israel's war against Hamas. Welcome to this special broadcast on I-24 News. I'm Kaleb Ndavid. We are still here at Kibbutz, Barry, just a few kilometers from the border of the Gaza Strip. We can hear the sounds of the war, explosions, artillery shells, the planes and drones flying overhead quite clearly. Today, it's six months to the day that that war against Hamas began on October 7th. And few places suffered, maybe no community suffered more on that day than Kibbutz, Barry. We'll speak with some of the survivors of those incidents on that day and look towards also maybe the future, a future revival of the Kibbutz and of course discuss the course of the war itself. First, Joe Brown brings us back to what happened on October 7th and the aftermath of that day. October 7th, 2023, a date that will be etched into the memories of every Israeli and a day that will be recounted to every Israeli child for generations. Citizens of Israel, we are at war, not in an operation or in a round of fighting, it war. At 6.30 a.m. on Saturday, the 7th of October, 2023, during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, Israelis were awoken by an unprecedented barrage of over 3,000 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel, which Hamas referred to as Operation Al-Aqsa Storm. Whilst this was unfolding, around 3,000 Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel via land, sea and air, breaking through the Israeli border. The IDF warned people in the Israeli community surrounding the Gaza border to remain in their safe rooms for fear of further infiltration, but they were too late. The terrorists had already begun their massacre, killing, raping and taking hostage civilians in their homes, soldiers at military bases and the Israeli police. Almost every community around the border was affected, with some being completely destroyed beyond recognition. The most harm was caused to Kibbutz Bari, where over 130 people were killed, Nahalaz, where over 100 were killed in attacks on the Kibbutz and the military base, Khwar Azar, where over 40 were killed, as well as 10 other communities which were infiltrated. But the greatest massacre occurred at the Nova Music Festival on the grounds of Kibbutz Reim, where over 370 partygoers, predominantly young men and women, were butchered and dozens abducted into the Gaza Strip. Throughout the entire day, horrified Israelis were glued to their televisions or smartphones as new footage from the sites of Damascus circulated. Videos of Hamas terrorists shooting at Kibbutz Bari, firing at partygoers and people being dragged kicking and screaming into Gaza became seared into the minds of people around the world. In total, around 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed in the onslaught and over 250 people were kidnapped, with ages ranging from 86 years old to a mere nine months. The events on October 7th shocked the world, with leaders flocking to Israel to show support and solidarity, and candlelit vigils being held across the globe. But despite overwhelming support, the world was on edge for what Israel would do next. The enemy will pay an unprecedented price. We are at war and we will win it. And a price has definitely been paid. Three weeks later, IDF forces invaded the Gaza Strip with two goals, to destroy Hamas and to bring back the hostages. In the over five months of fighting since, Israel claims to have killed over 13,000 Hamas militants, around 40% of its combat manpower, and have arrested over 2,000. Out of the 253 people taken hostage on October 7th, 112 hostages have returned to Israel alive. 105 threw a ceasefire prisoner swap with Hamas, four from a unilateral Hamas release, and three through IDF operations. The bodies of 12 hostages have been repatriated back to Israel, leaving 133 in the Gaza Strip, 129 from October 7th, and four who were abducted prior to that date. Talks for a further release deal have remained sporadic and, thus far, unsuccessful. But as the months have gone on and the fighting has intensified, pressure on Israel has grown, with international condemnation stemming from the humanitarian crisis that has unfolded in Gaza, compounded by the airstrike that killed seven foreign aid workers, and a public spat between Benjamin Netanyahu and his US counterpart Joe Biden, furthering Israel's isolation on the global stage. Over six months on, with Hamas still existing and 133 hostages remaining in the Gaza Strip, the war continues, with the images from that dark Saturday still fresh in the minds of every Israeli. And we are joined here this evening at Kibbutzbury by Reserves Colonel Olivia Raffowitz, an international spokesperson for the IDF. We have Dr Gedalia Fendel. She's a member of the emergency response team from Shuver, a neighboring community, who came here on October 7th as the crisis was unfolding. Good evening. Good evening. And we have Neeli Bar-Sinai. She is a longtime resident of the Kibbutz. She survived the October 7th attack here. Unfortunately, her husband Yoram did not make his memory be a blessing. Neeli, let me just start with you. On that day, October 7th, how did it fall this for you and what you can tell us about what happened to your husband? My story is not that dramatic. I was, we lived in a small house that was temporary because we were doing some, she puts in our renovations on our genuine home. So we were there in the morning and, you know, the routine of, you know, bombing and all this. This time, my daughter, she wrote a text to us, she said, go in the safe room. But we usually don't go. If we don't have kids with us, we don't go there because this is routine. We know that. And this is not the first time, you know, this is not a big... Right. You thought it was just a rocket attack. Yeah. And that's the usual stuff. And then sometimes, you know, a year ago, we were evacuated to the Dead Sea also. Right. This was just a year ago. I know this is a routine. If it comes to be serious, then I take the kids and I go with them because my daughter stays here. She's working in that force so she can't go with the kids. So this is the usual, but this was noisy. So I went out to sea. And then my daughter texted us that there were terrorists around. And they had come on to the keyboards itself. And that we should go in the safe room and lock the door. And then so I walked my husband and he said, okay, you will go and check what's going on there. So he took his bike and he took a pistol that we had in the home. And he rode his bike all the way. It's the diameter of the keyboards all the way. Maybe 700 meters. He was riding. And they were shooting, but not that serious. So he climbed up. She lives in the second floor and he went in and he said, good morning. And this was Shabbat morning. So he made coffee for himself and he was standing on the balcony when we don't really know what happened because she was inside. She couldn't see. Everybody was in the safe room. But the neighbor, he saw a jeep coming and seven people came up the stairs and she heard the shooting. We don't know if he knocked some of them down. We don't know exactly what happened, but then one of them came in and she had steps coming closer and she opened the door because she thought it was his father. But she saw this terrorist coming in with this bandana on his head and she slammed the door on him and she kept holding the handle for 20 hours until somebody came to take away with the kids. Right. And you were in the safe room the whole time? I was on the other side of the keyboard. I had no idea what was going on and soon enough there was no electricity, no water, no nothing. And I didn't have the intuition to open TV or something because we are not in the focus of this country and nobody is interested if somebody shoots at us. So I didn't think even that they would show us on TV. I didn't open anything. And I was sitting in the safe room and doing some cross puzzle, a difficult one. And then I was waiting because I thought what I had to do was wait until somebody comes and finishes this off. So then after a while my husband didn't show any signs and I said to my daughter she lives in Haifa, she called to see. And I said, I'm going to check what happened to him and she said, you don't do anything like this. You stay safe and you don't move and you can't do this. So I stayed and I was evacuated only Sunday afternoon, late afternoon. So you were more than 24, maybe something closer to like 36 hours in the safe room. And then when you got out and is that when you heard, and when did you hear that your husband had been killed? How soon was it? I didn't have to hear because, you know, this was six, I mean, this was 36 hours later. So there was no sign of him. And but, you know, I didn't know, but when we got out, I was walking. I was, I was taken with another woman, you know, all the soldiers surrounded us and we were walking all the way from the keyboard. So I saw that I'm going out to a different world. This was not the keyboards I knew. And I came to the gate and then some guy was there and he took us with a private car and I was looking at him and I said, how come you are here? I mean, what is this? And he said, my wife doesn't even know I'm here. I just couldn't stay at home. And he was driving all day. All the people that were so private citizen drove down here, not the army, not the police. It was a private citizen on his own, just sort of volunteered and drove down here to take people to safety, including yourself. So he took us to a devotee. And then I first met Kibbutz members. I'm not a resident. I'm a member. Right. This is the difference. And then and I started hearing stories, but then I had no idea, not, not about the scale and right and and the scope of, you know, what happened here. I had no idea. Right. Gita, what about your experience? You obviously came here as part of the emergency rescue squad. You certainly, I guess you had some idea of what was unfolding that morning. So I got to correct you a bit about that. Okay. So I'm a citizen of Shuva, which is across the street to Barry. And we woke up for the same morning, 6.30 in the morning, all the bombing and everything. And I basically the whole day, which we'll explain later on, but I was there. I came later on. Only at night. I came to Barry later on and basically had tried to help you or whatever I could outside the Kibbutz, which injured and right bodies that came out. But beforehand we had a very hectic and busy day also in Shuva. So tell me about that. So basically, as Nelly said, we woke up for a very noisy day, a noisy morning. We ran down to the shelter, everybody crying, screaming. I right away went out because I'm part of the emergency team and I was trying to start understanding what's happening. From my balcony, we could see everything. We see smoke, we see missiles, nonstop. And so I leave the house after I let my wife know this is something else. I'm also dressed already for Shabbat. My idea was that I'm going out of it and I'll be from there going to the synagogue and celebrating. And basically like until 12, 12-ish that day, I was outside in the fields trying to protect with a pistol that a friend gave me when he went back to his family and hearing all the noises and reading the news as it going, basically understanding that the smoke we see is not what we're used to see from Gaza. It's Barry put on fire. Basically I had myself. The terrorists were burning homes that people were taking refuge in their safe rooms. They were burning homes. They were burning in aluminum. And that's when it occurred to us that, and we started saying it and pronouncing it in our mouths, Barry is captured. Really settlements are captured. And that's something that nobody could have understood. There were a lot of people because of religion did not put on their phones. And when I told them, listen, you're not understanding what's going on. Put yourself in a safer position. Go up to roofs of houses. Don't stay down in the fields. Places are being captured, occupied by Hamas terror. Nobody understood. People were, I saw the first video of the road with Hamas running. There was a Jeep and my family is from the road. And I was short at Photoshop. And so that's basically until 12. And then as a doctor, I got a phone saying, we're coming to pick you up. And and entrance to our Moshav Tushuva started coming a lot of injured soldiers. Right. And a lot of bodies, unfortunately. And basically that's when they took me out and I started working over there. Right. And they just did not stop coming. Right. Not dead bodies and not injured soldiers for the whole day. Right. Can I just ask how shocked you when you got to bury and you saw the devastation here on this in this community? Those those are themes that you could not imagine. I have videos on my phone describing that taken at that evening. Of cars burnt and are upside down. Army Jeeps upside down. You see boosters and car seats. I mean, right? Car seats and carriages outside thrown out out of cars that were been shot. And just bodies keep coming out of bury bodies, bodies, bodies. And at a certain point, I'm going back to Shova. Yeah. At a certain point later in that evening and also afterwards also in Bury. I think this was like the the the most the happiest moment I had that day, if I could say such a thing, is when I met a couple that told me they're the first citizens I saw. Right. Everybody were soldiers. Right. And they say we're from Bury. And they are the elderly couple. And I gave him a hug and I started crying. I said, listen, so I was sure there's not one that survived, right? I was sure that Barry is I gave him that hug and it's a key. Right. It's a key. And his wife, Aliza, came to us barefoot with their pajamas. Olderly people have no idea what's really went on. Right. And they they described that they stepped on bodies when they were pulled out of their mamad of their shelter. Right. And I took and I sent them to my wife to the house. Right. And we had a lot of emotional moments, but terrifying scenes. Right. And here one one more visit, nice visit that we had. I think it's nice. We had, you know, Avigail, the the four year old that was kidnapped. So. Her two siblings, Michela and Amalia, that were hitting the whole the whole day in the in the cabinet. So they they came to our to the junction of Shuva. Right. And I come over to them, check, they're fine. They're not injured. Right. Amalia, six year old, full of blood. Right. I asked them, is everything OK? They were hungry for them some nash. Right. And send them also to my family. And they spent the night playing Remy and eating and, you know, nail polishing. That's some of our experiences that night. One one ray of light in a very dark day. Olivia, I want to move now from then from October 7th to now to April 7th, because here we are six months later. The IDF is still involved in its war in Gaza. We do have reports today of the IDF pulling most of its ground troops out. But of course, we still have the hostages there. We still have Hamas and at least a couple of its brigades down in Rafah. Where is the war now? Good evening and thank you very much to have me here and in Barry and I'm very impressed by all your descriptions on them. I'm with you tonight and with you also, doctor. By the way, we are with all the people of Israel who have suffered during this 7th of October. And tonight, the Chief General of Staff, General Ertzi Alevi, said that we have to do everything as soon as possible to bring back home all those stages. It's a very serious, very important statement and it comes after six months now. And we hope that everything will be done as soon as possible. I'm not going to comment as a political level, as you can understand, I'm a military man. But it is very important from the army side to send a message to all those people who are involved in the talks and they have to bring home all these hostages. And we are with the families tonight. Containing the military situation. I want to make it very clear. The Israeli army is still fighting Hamas now, tonight, tomorrow in the Gaza Strip. The point that the 98th Commando Division went out yesterday does not mean that the Israeli army is not still fighting there. We have a brigade and other special forces inside to fight Hamas. And maybe the Modus operandi, the way of fighting is different. But we are still continuing to fight very seriously Hamas. Wherever we are meeting them and we are going to destroy them. Until now, we have destroyed 25 battalions of Hamas. There are still around four to five in the Rafah era. That means that we are going to be ready to move against Hamas when the political action will give the order to the Israeli army. But tonight we are still fighting. We are hearing the drones. We are hearing the artillery shells. And we have to continue to protect the population just to say something. When we talk now around 300,000 people in Israel from the north to the south are not capable to be in their homes. Right. So we have to bring back security in the south by fighting Hamas by bringing back the hostages by fighting in the north Hezbollah. But this situation means that we are still in a war after six months. All right, Gita, you look like you want to get something. Yeah, I just want to say that it's right that there are 300,000 families that cannot live, but also we that we came back. We're not really leaving living. It's important to say we came back because it's important for us. But we're not feeling safe. We're not protected. I'm walking with a gun on me. My kids go to sleep with teddy bears, thinking they'll protect them from terrorists with guns. We do not feel secure. So it's not only those 300,000. Yes, what I'm saying that until security is not back formally, officially and for everybody, for your family, for your kids, the war is not over. The situation is not over yet. That means that we are continuing to fight in spite of the fact that we are changing the tactical issues or the modus operandi in the Gaza Strip. But just to make it clear, we left at some point the Shifa Hospital, for example, after three months, we came back by surprise. We killed 200 terrorists. We we arrested 513 more under investigation. That means that we have also to use sometimes surprise tactics to get Hamas and to eliminate them. Right. I nearly I want to give you a chance to speak, if you would, because you mentioned about the political echelon. There is still the issue of the hostages. There were, I think, something like 25, 26 hostages taken from Barry, about half, no, 11 still there from what I understand. OK, right. They were about half of those, a little more than half, either were just were returned in the hostage exchange or their bodies have been found. And as you said, 11 still there. So I want to get your feelings about what has to be done. Look now, let's looking forward. As Gadaia said, he talked about the need for safety. I want to get your your feelings on. If I knew how to solve the problem, I would definitely be a prime minister, but I did not choose to be one. So, but I think it's a political issue. It is not it is not it cannot be solved by power because we tried this for many years. This is not working. I mean, this is this is you have to look at it on a historical scale. What I'm saying is this, you know, 50 years ago, they killed my mother at the airport. I'm sorry, is that right at the airport massacre? Your mother was killed in a terror attack there. And this has been 50 years and now they kid my husband. So did anyone get any better from this? Do you think even just one soul in Gaza was saved because of this murders? I don't think so. Right. So what I'm saying is that there has to be change. It has to be changed in the Gaza Strip, but also in our places. And I think it goes nowhere. Power goes nowhere. Right. And we we are it's a fact that we live here and it's a fact that they live here and we have to. Now, I know in that very there were people, for example, who were involved in coexistence projects, in some cases, picked up Palestinians from Gaza and took them, for example, to hospitals, to oncology wards. And I know you've spoken about the need for educating a new generation, especially among your neighbors, those in Gaza, towards coexistence, not towards hatred. I think so. You know, I only feel history. The irony of fate is that the West, the Western neighborhoods of people of my age, so they had time. They were pension, they were retired people. They had time and they were involved in all kinds of political involved in coexistence in helping in peace activities. There were most many of them were peace activists, many. And they are they are the ones that were closest to the border and they are the ones that were killed and tortured and burned and, you know, just, you know, cremated in their homes. Agatha, you want to say something? Yeah, I agree with you very much. Fifty years and much more. So we are doing the same thing. We are still believing in coexistence. That is what we have to stop. There is no coexistence. I was 150 days in Gaza. I saw them. I saw what we call civilians. There is no one over there that is not happy, that did not dance, did not give out candies on the 7th of October. Nobody is just a simple citizen. Everybody wants you to be killed. And and wait, wait, wait, wait, and and as you said, the people that were very, very coexisting and helping them and they were the closest and everything. And we know even stories of people that knew them personally and saw them kill them. The person that they know that they took care of kill them. We know stories of that. That is something that should teach us. And I'll tell you this. I am I have a lot of I'm I'm a Jew. And because I'm a Jew, we have a soul that's full of emotions and I cried. You know, one of the only times I cried in Gaza, when I saw the kids of the Palestinians walk down with their families down towards the Rafiq with it was their doll and with parts and a four year old carrying her two year old. Yeah, I cried because I saw my own kids and I knew that's hard. I know it's hard to see a two year old hanging on the floor. He's not willing to continue. But that's my soul. They don't have that soul. And when you understand what I want to not have that well, they are educated, they're educated. Oh, that's what I want to say. When I was on the tank, I waved to all the kids and I sent them hello, hoping that maybe when they grow up, they'll remember that the soldiers are not that bad. Well, I know you were on it. You were on it. You were on the tank, though. I mean, they're seeing you as a soldier on the tank. But I want to give nearly. I'm saying this. There's. They are effect. They are historic fact. They are there and nobody else wants them. Nobody else wants them. They will go nowhere and nobody else wants us. So we are going to stay anyhow. So this is a fact. This is a fact. We have to come to terms with it. And, you know, Europe, there was after Second World War, there were movements of citizens all over Europe. There were a migration of hundreds and maybe millions of people. And now you hear nothing about this. This is the only place where the refugees of the Second World War still are still living in and still expecting the world to help them. In all other places, refugees, problems were solved only in Gaza. They were not. So this is this is not our problem. I know, but still they are our neighbors and we have to live with this one. One brief question. Nearly I until the 7th of October did not walk around here with a with a gun. My only my first gun I got is off a body of a dead soldier that came out here of a very here by the fence. I took his gun and since then I fought with it for more than 150 days in Gaza. There is not one person in Gaza that has a gun that has a weapon that he's using it for protection in Israel. Everybody carries a weapon for protection. Nobody walks around with a pistol saying I'm carrying it for attacking. That's a big difference. Right. OK. Well, I will. And yet, of course, I'm sure this is a discussion that will continue on. I want I want to thank Dr. Gaddalia Fendle for joining us. I do want to go to our correspondent, Zach Anders, who was here down in the South. He's been covering the conflict and Zach, we are here as six months. The IDF chief of staff just this evening says it's going to be still a long war. But clearly some changes are happening in the way that the IDF is going to be looking how to fight this war going forward. That's right, love. You know, I also, too, I remember my very first days here in Barry. That was some of the most difficult things I'd witnessed and experienced inside some of those homes. What we're seeing today, the the movement out of Kanyunas is raising a lot of questions. And we're seeing the response from all corners. The Defense Minister Galat saying that this is anticipatory of a Rafa operation. But the questions still remain as to the timing of why pull out of Kanyunas. Now, is this have something to do with potentially a hostage deal? We remember that red line that Hamas proposed for this deal was the full withdrawal of the Gaza Strip Prime Minister Netanyahu saying that's just not going to happen. But potentially when we heard this morning that the delegation in Cairo was going to have more latitude in the negotiations that this might have been a part of it, we don't know for certain. But it certainly with the timing and how this is arranged, especially after four soldiers, four IDF soldiers were just killed in and around Kanyunas and what appeared to be either RPG or anti-tank fire on their position. So clearly from everything I've understood in the sources that I've spoken to today, this movement out of Kanyunas, the IDF does not want this to be viewed as that there has been a successful operation inside Kanyunas and that the Hamas has been removed from the area. That that's not what they're trying to communicate here. That this is a part of a broader tactical plan. It also reminds me somewhat of what we saw happen at Al-Shifa. Now, this example is much smaller in scale in scope, but the IDF going into Al-Shifa and removing themselves and then coming back in the last two weeks and the IDF saying that they engaged and killed dozens, hundreds of terrorists inside that hospital complex, they're not making those parallels tonight, but it's hard not to to see that this IDF movement out of a certain area does not have at least some logic or reasoning behind it as to what comes next. All right, again, this down here in the south. Let's take a look at this report prepared by a Robert Swift looking at the state of things. Here we are six months into Israel's war against Hamas. Six months of war in the Gaza Strip and on Israel's northern border have been put into numbers. The IDF released figures detailing the military response to October the 7th and the numbers of enemies that it estimates it killed. More than 12,000 members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have been killed in the Gaza Strip arena, among them five senior operational commanders. On Israel's northern frontier, 330 enemy fighters have been killed by IDF fire, mostly members of Hezbollah. And in the West Bank, 420 have been killed, the IDF says. Gaza's Health Ministry, controlled by Hamas, has published that more than 33,000 people have been killed in the last six months, a figure counting both combatants and civilians. Several thousand more are missing, buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings. During this time, more than 12,000 rockets, mortars, missiles and drones have been launched into Israeli territory. While launches from Gaza have reduced dramatically as Israel captured ground inside the Strip, attacks into Israel's north continue daily. Israel conducted an unprecedented call-up of its reservists in response to Hamas's attack, boosting its conscript forces with 300,000 reserve soldiers, most of them men under the age of 40. Just over 600 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the last six months, 260 of them inside Gaza since the IDF entered the territory. As the war rumbles on with no clear end in sight and the possibilities of escalations in Rafa and in the north, such statistics will only keep climbing up. Kibbutz Berry was founded in 1946, two years before the establishment of the state of Israel, part of 11 settlements in the Negev that were built as expression after World War II of the Zionist movement, reasserting itself. It was named after the Hebrew name of Boral Katz Nelson, one of the leaders of the Zionist movement, of the labor Zionist movement. A lot of people felt he was almost the spiritual leader of that pioneering Zionist spirit. And perhaps no enterprise here on Kibbutz Berry expresses it more than the major business here, the printing press business, which one week after October 7th went back up and running. And with us now is Ben Sukman. He is the CEO of the Berry Print Factory here. First of all, thank you for joining us, Ben. Thank you very much for having me. You could tell us about what happened if you with October 7th and also what happened with the Print Factory. Myself and my family, we were at the Shelter Room for many, many hours. Luckily, no one tried to enter our room. Unfortunately, I was with my mother for a few hours on the phone, and I was with her once a terrorist got inside her safe room and took her away. The phone was still open, so I could hear them speaking with each other. The terrorist and my mother, he was asking her for her jewelry and for her money. And after a few minutes, they left together the safe room. We were told a week later that she was kidnapped and two days later that she's been murdered. So we buried her at Revivim, where it was a temporary ground where 29 of our members of our community got buried, and hopefully we will bring her here soon. For sure. What about the Print Factory? Maybe in a certain way, which I don't really understand at the moment, on the 8th of October, at 8 o'clock in the morning, we decided that printing, we need to reopen the printing house. I called a member of boards. One of them is Nili's daughter, Ruthie. And we decided that we're going to open the printing press, although I didn't know where my mother is. Ruthie didn't know where her father is. And still we decided that this is what's best for us to do. Even though almost all of the keyboards had been evacuated out of the community. Because I think we were about 10, about 1000 people in the Dead Sea, mourning, grieving, in a lot of pain, in a lot of uncertainty about the present, about the future. And we thought that maybe we can have a symbol to this community that not everything is all bad. Maybe there is still way to progress. Maybe there is still a way to look at the future in a bright way. And that's what we did. We fought for a few days to get the permission from the army to get inside. We convinced the army, we convinced the politicians to help us show that Barry is not only a symbol of destruction, maybe it is a symbol of redemption. Right. And luckily we did that and we arrived here on the Sunday, the 14th. The president of Israel came with us and we reopened the printing house. We made a short ceremony to remember the people that we've lost. Barry Printer have lost 12 of its guys, 12 of its men, along with the 100 people of our community. So, and I think on the Dead Sea on that day, I think it was the first thing that was optimistic for our community. And it was a symbol for us and also for the region that it's not all done. Right. You talked about revival. There is a government plan to Kuma, which could mean revival. It could even resurrection. The government are giving some details this week of the funding to bring these communities back. But first and foremost, there needs to be security for these communities. And Colonel Raffowitz, let me ask you about that because, as you said, the chief of staff speaking today, but saying there's a long road ahead. And a lot of Israelis are asking, when will there be security? As you yourself said, not just for here in the South, but also for those communities in the North that are evacuated even more so almost today to a greater degree. You know, Israel is in a war. It is maybe the most difficult war since independence war for all the Israelis. Of course, people who used to live here and suffered murders are in the first place people who have suffered this war. But it's an existential war because the enemy wants to destroy the Jewish soul after the fissure. They want to kill the Jews. It was a case of Hamas. It is a DNA of Hezbollah. We're just hearing the threats of Iran. So we are in a kind of war with different phases. For the time being, some people are returning to some communities in this area, but still there is no full security because Hamas is still capable to fire missiles and to be present in the south part of the Gaza Strip in the Rafah area. We have also a problem in the North. So all together, like I just said today, the General Elsie Alevi, war is not over, and it will take time. For now, the first priority is to bring back the hostages. That's why you're going to repeat, General Elsie Alevi declared to the political level, to the people of Israel, that it is emergency before all the other priorities to do everything and to be ready to pay the price because the Israeli army is strong enough to bring them back. So in this issue, I'm very happy that the print company, the print factory is open, but you know that it's still not today the best return for all people to bring back the home because it's still not over yet. Right, Ben, do you want to say something? First of all, I want to remind that Bere had 31 people that got kidnapped. Many of them came back and we still have 11 people, 11 still kidnapped, six of them considered to be dead, and the rest of them are hopefully alive. And I'm really, really happy. I will be very, very happy to see them coming back as soon as possible. I think the things six months later are not as the way we expected them to be. The things are not moving fast in the way that we've expected it to be. In what way, both in the war and also here? For sure, for sure. Also, I was sure six months ago that we will feel safe after a few months to come back here. And still, you can hear the noises around, and still there is a lot of missiles flowing on the air. And second of all, what the government need to do is still missing. Tkuma is trying hard. It's doing a lot of effort, but the job hasn't been done. Money hasn't been transformed for us, and we are still waiting. And you can see the buildings are still standing, and we did not start to rebuild. So there's a lot of issues and a lot of pain on this day, six months later. It's a very emotional day for us. And we really want things to be faster, to move faster on the kidnap and on the... Right. And Nilly, I want to get your perspective a bit here, because you are... Is it 50 years that you've been... You were certainly one of the veterans of a berry. Your husband was one of the builders of the Kibbutz, yes, an architect. You've been here for so long. You've gone through so much. I did not know about your mother being also a victim of terror. Just your feelings now about where... There are many people in this country are despairing. Others who say, who are steadfast and feel, yes, now we have to be stronger. For someone who's been through so much, how do you feel after what you've gone these... What are these six months? How do they fit in with your life? I don't know. Staying in the hotel is waiting, you know, just waiting, waiting, waiting. So I couldn't stand it. So I'm halfway back, because in the Kibbutz it's people who are doing, and in the hotel it's people that are waiting. So I like it better here. But this is not safe. But you know, where is safe? Do you know any place in Israel that is safe? The Rana is not, and Tel Aviv is not, and nowhere is safe. So what we have to do is do the political changes that are needed. This is basic stuff. I mean, it's unbelievable that six months later everything is still the same. You know, it's still arguing about the things that we fought about six months ago, like nothing has happened. This is unbelievable. So we are back on the streets now. I just want to Olivier the point about where is safe. We're speaking just days after Iran, the nation of Iran threatened Israel, talk about a threat that the whole country could be facing in terms of that. What can you tell us about and the possibility of Israel having to extend this war, not just here and not just in the north, where of course there have been many casualties as well? You know, we're in Beirre tonight, and we heard about the tragedies, about the casualties. We paid, and we are still paying a very terrible price for this war. It's a repeat. It is an existential war, and it is felt in Beirre. It is felt in other parts of the countries. I was today in Tel Aviv, people are very anxious because they feel like you're feeling buried. They feel like they feel in Aviv, in Metula. This war is not over. It's the longest war since the Independence War, repeat. And we have to be ready for a long campaign. We have to be very resilient. And in spite of all the difficulties, which exists, of course, we have only one country, one people, and one army. We have no other army, no other country, no other people, no other CEO of the print company. All these people are making Israel like it is today. And because these people are so strong, are so resilient, and I'm impressed by a nearly testimony about their husband, her mother, about you, about your mother, and you are still here, strong. That may be the best proof of what we are now. A country in war, paying a price, still under, I would say, tragedy, still under, I would say, psychological trauma. But we need to be very strong and very united. It's not only words. You know, when we see the soldiers reserve from the rank in Gaza, out from Gaza, doing what they are doing, we can be very proud to be Israeli today. But again, I repeat, and we have to be very clear, war is not over. War is not over. And because we left yesterday with the Division 98, the Gaza Strip, doesn't mean that we are giving up. On the contrary, we are continuing to fight. And the goal is to rescue and to bring back home all the hostages. I'm saying that someday this war will be over, right? Someday in the future. Okay? When Hamas is dismantled and destroyed. And when it's over, we still have to do something about the coexistence. We still have to do something about the education of the other side and ourselves. And we need to do political changes that will make it possible to make peace. I mean, it is not a natural disaster what happened. This is man-made. People made it on both sides, right? But you can see that Germany and France, they went through two world wars, involved millions of people all around the globe, right? And look at them. Now they share they are in NATO, partners in NATO. So we could do the same. But it has to be political. I want to, Ben, because it will look like you want to get something to contribute here, for sure. I just want to mention that we are talking about with the military guys. Their objective is to finish the war. And what you're saying is to the political level. And I think you're right. But this is not the guy to talk to about. But I want to ask you, Ben, I want to ask you because Olivia did talk about the resilience. How resilient are the people here? Because you are, you are two examples of resilience. Is that the mood in Barry? Are most of the people going to be coming back to Barry? I don't know. I know that people will come back. I know that Barry will come back. I know that they will return. Not everybody is going to come back. At the moment, I think we are at the mood of surviving. We need to figure out where we're going to live, what we're going to eat, how we're going to make money. And for me, for example, I'm going to keep my anger. Keep my emotions to the minute that I'm going to feel safe. That I'm going to have to feel that I have a shelter. I have a home. And then I will have the time to be angry and to ask for questions, for answers, for many, many, many questions that we have. Right. Did you really want to say one final word before we go? This is personal. It's a personal decision. Some people come back and some people will not. And I think it depends on the personal experience of that day of the seventh. And it also depends on the presence of kids. If you had kids with you, it is entirely different experience. So I think it all depends on the kids and on the safety that people feel to bet on the future of the kids. All right. I do want to say Kibbutz Berry, as I mentioned, was founded two years before the establishment. It predates the establishment of the state of Israel. And it was founded on a dream of that state of Israel right after World War II to symbolize the Zionist movement, its resilience after the war, to come back after a tragedy as great as everything here has been, was on many levels, even beyond. I do hope to say that I wish Kibbutz Berry still stands in one way or another as a symbol of the resilience going forward. I want to thank Colonel Livia Raffwitz for coming here. Ben Sukman and May the Berry print press continue onward. Nearly, Borsi Nwai. Thank you so much for sharing your personal story with me. I just want to say one word. No, I'm afraid I'll never have to go. Thank you so much for joining us on this special broadcast. 24 News from Kibbutz Berry on the six months since the beginning. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where she is.