Israel is forced to bury those killed by Hamas far from their homes, which were near the Gaza Strip until October 7, the day of the attack. To date, these cities have been razed to the ground and declared a military exclusion zone. There the army is also preparing the land invasion of this Palestinian enclave. “I don’t have time to bury all my friends,” complains Hugo Wolaj, 46 years old. Miraculously, he says, he and his wife and three daughters, ages 15, 13 and 11, were saved from the carnage wrought by jihadist militiamen on the Beeri kibbutz where they lived.
On the other hand, his neighbors from the Even family. Sunday afternoon, Wolaj wanders around with papers in hand, organizing the burial of four of its six members at the cemetery of Kibbutz Revivim. Chen, the father (45 years old), arrives in the coffins; Rinat, the mother (44) and two of her children, Alon (16) and Ido (14). Tomer (11) and Nir (8) were rescued. The little ones are still alive as they lie under the bodies of their parents and siblings, said a relative who came to say goodbye to the family but preferred not to be named. Four other people murdered in Beeri besides the Even were buried in Revivim on Sunday in front of about 300 people.
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Residents of the kibbutz that was attacked by Hamas on Saturday, leaving 1,400 people dead, do not know when, how and where they will resume their lives. That attack, in which Israel’s response has already killed 4,385 people in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry, was a major blow to a security-obsessed country. Some don’t even know if they will ever be able to return home.
“I don’t know if we can go back,” admits Wolaj amid the transfer of coffins covered with the national flag, floral wreaths, prayers, tears and hugs. On the graves, those present place stones (Jewish tradition), flowers and even some personal items such as a scarf from the Hapoel Jerusalem basketball team. “We still don’t know how we will do it, but we will return to Beeri and resurrect our community in the name of the dead,” predicts Gil Cohen, for his part, trying to hold on to a certain optimism, one of those responsible for the kibbutz .
Funerals this Sunday of Israelis murdered by Hamas in Kibbutz Beeri on October 7th. Luis de Vega
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“It will be a challenge to bring people back to their homes,” understands Avraham Rotshten, 68, who lives in Tel Aviv. He is committed to the trade in imported seeds and knows the area around Gaza where the attack took place well, having frequently visited the growing areas. “If you don’t worry now, you’re not normal.” “We live like real zombies,” he adds, referring to the collective catharsis they are going through.
The Kibbutz Revivim Cemetery in the Negev Desert, fifty kilometers inland from Gaza, is the temporary location to which the bodies of the Beeri community are transferred. As a result of the massacre, Hugo Wolaj is now responsible for organizing the funerals of his colleagues from Kibbutz Beeri, where he settled in 1992 at the age of 15. “On Thursday we buried 12, on Friday six or seven, today 17… There are more than 100,” he says, agreeing with the death toll figures provided by military sources, who estimate that on March 7. October approximately one person lost their life. Hundred thousand inhabitants. “Beeri was not just a city, it was a community where there was solidarity,” notes Wolaj, who is of Argentine origin.
Of the list of 120 victims, 70 bodies have already been identified. The identities of another 50 are not yet known or whether they were taken hostage by Hamas and are in Gaza, explains Gal Cohen. As EL PAÍS confirmed on Friday, members of the specialized rescue group Zaka are still searching for bodies in the remains of the kibbutz’s houses. “We hope that we can bring the bodies back to Beeri later, at least of everyone who wants to,” he says.
Burials of those murdered by Hamas in the Beeri Kibbutz, this Sunday in the Revivim Kibbutz.Luis de Vega
“You have to give them a temporary solution. I think the bodies could be buried here for a year,” said a person close to the Even family who wished to remain anonymous. “The residents of the kibbutz want to remain in community wherever they may be. You have to agree with the government, but at the moment we are not talking about that, but about the immediate situation. Because there are some kibbutz that have been deleted from the map,” he adds.
“The first thing we did was contact a security company to barricade the house. “Something like that is going through my head now,” said Inbal, a 35-year-old woman who was also present at the funerals, through tears. She lives with her husband and three daughters aged seven years, four and 18 months in the city of Beersheba, about thirty kilometers from Kibbutz Revivim and the same distance from Gaza as the crow flies.
“I’m glad I don’t have children who will fight the most, although my three daughters will also go into the army,” he says, referring to conscription for men and women. Inbal works at Ben-Gurion University, which has ceased operations these days and has dozens of victims among those murdered, missing and kidnapped. “Some were at the rave,” he comments, referring to the party that Hamas members broke into and killed 260 of the attendees.
An important part of Beeri’s residents are currently living temporarily in a hotel on the shores of the Dead Sea. From there they set out to bury those they have identified. Now they try to survive with the help of wine, beer, songs and crying, explains Wolaj. “I’m fine, I’m strong,” he says, referring to his state of mind, “although I barely have the strength to even cry anymore.”
Burials of those murdered by Hamas in the Beeri Kibbutz, this Sunday in the Revivim Kibbutz.Luis de Vega
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