Israeli military figures estimated Thursday that more than 1,200 people were killed in Saturday’s massive terror attack, the vast majority of them civilians. At Kibbutz Be’eri, a network of around 1,000 people just a few kilometers from Kibbutz Urim, more than 100 bodies were recovered through rescue agencies this week.
A team of volunteers prepares food for infantrymen located in the Gaza border domain on Oct. 12, 2023, near Urim, Israel. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
In the vicinity of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, more than 120 corpses, including many of young children, were discovered burned and decapitated. Meanwhile, in the fields surrounding the Kibbutz Reim music festival, some 260 bodies have been discovered. The Israeli government continues to struggle to identify and all of the dead.
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In addition, an estimated 80 people, U. S. citizens, have been returned to the Gaza Strip and taken hostage.
Somehow, the small network of Kibbutz Urim was spared death and destruction, unlike several nearby villages and towns.
While thousands of terrorists carried out the worst terror attack the State of Israel has ever seen, Pelish said none of them managed to infiltrate his kibbutz, located just under a kilometer from the highway from Gaza to Ofakim. Barricaded in a community bomb shelter, members of the kibbutz heard rockets flying overhead and gunfire, as they were informed of what was happening around them through friends in nearby communities.
Yehudit Pelish was born in the United States but grew up in a kibyetz. He said it was a “miracle” that the terrorists failed to succeed in them. (Courtesy: Yehudit Pelish)
“We’ve been close to a few accidents,” said Pelish, who runs the kibbutz’s fitness and wellness center. “Several terrorists were killed on the road leading to our kibbutz, and 4 others were captured just outside our back. door. “
“We just got lucky,” he said.
Sophie Stillman, who moved from Minnesota in 2017 and lived on Kibbutz Urim during her first year in the country, told Fox News Digital that she had returned over the weekend to stop at her adoptive circle of relatives who live there when the sound of rockets and sirens sounded. . I woke her up at 6:30 a. m. on Saturday.
“To hear the first siren, we simply crouched in the living room and then ran to a nearby shelter on the surface as the rockets kept coming,” recalls the 28-year-old, who now lives in Tel Aviv. To last longer, we ran across the lawn to the underground shelter and joined everyone who was there. “
Sophie Stillman, a Minnesota native, former resident of Kibbutz Urim. He visited his friends at the kibbutz last weekend. (Photo courtesy: Sophie Stillman)
“I messaged my parents in the U. S. and told them not to worry and that we were safe,” Stillman said, describing how they freed up board games to pass the time.
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Israeli infantrymen take up positions in the southern Israeli town of Ofakim, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023. Hamas militants stormed the border fence on Saturday, killing many Israelis in surrounding communities. The burning car plowed through the gunmen and set it on fire. through the locals. ((AP Photo/Ilan Assayag))
Then Stillman and others in the bomb shelters began receiving reports of people who had been shot outside the kibbutz. His adoptive sister, an active-duty soldier serving at a nearby base, received messages from her comrades that they were being targeted by terrorists. At least three nearby military bases along the Gaza border were attacked and destroyed by Hamas terrorists.
“I heard so many gunshots outside,” Stillman described. I didn’t realize until later that they weren’t bilateral, they were unilateral. “
At the shelter, the citizens of Kibyetz began to mobilize but learned that they only had two weapons. Meanwhile, messages continued to come in from friends and family from other communities around Kibyetz Urim, claiming they were being attacked.
“It was a roller coaster,” said Stillman, who, along with the other members of the kibbutz, remained inside the shelter for more than 24 hours. “History unfolded around us during the day. “
At one point, he said, he sent a video of a young Israeli woman dressed in bloodied sweatpants being led into a jeep by Palestinian terrorists.
This symbol from a video provided via South First Responders shows charred and mangled cars along a deserted road after an attack by Hamas terrorists on the Tribe of Nova Tance music festival near Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel on Saturday, Oct. 7. 2023. Si many kibbutzim were attacked, the Urim miraculously remained intact. (Southern First Responders AP)
“We were sitting in the shelter and I saw this video, and I didn’t know if it could be us anytime soon,” Stillman said. “For the first time in my life, I started writing a farewell message to my circle of relatives [in the United States]. In a scenario like that, you start thinking about what to do if something happens to you. . . It’s psychological, and I What happened is completely incomprehensible.
Pelish explained that the Urim is one of dozens of small communities along the outskirts of Gaza, most of which were established in the 1940s. Most of the founding members of his kibbutz, he says, were Holocaust survivors who arrived from Europe after World War II. He also said that the communities in the domain are strongly linked, share a top regional school, and function in combination at all levels.
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IDF infantrymen deploy in the southern city of Sderot on Oct. 8, 2023. The death toll has risen to nearly 1,000 since the Palestinian militant organization Hamas introduced its major miracle attack on Israel with a barrage of rockets and a major ground assault, officials said in “Both Sides Said,” he said on Oct. 8. (MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP Getty Images)
“It’s heartbreaking to see the devastation and physical damage to iconic buildings in some of the other kibbutzim,” Pelish said. “In Kibbutz Be’eri, they have lost 10% of their population, and those are just the numbers that have been shown. “Until now. I don’t know how they rebuild themselves physically and emotionally. “
Pelish also said that a member of Kibbutz Urim, who spent the weekend in Beeri, is now missing, possibly among the hostages in Gaza.
Unlike other kibbutzim closer to the Gaza border, Pelish said Kibbutz Urim is far enough away to have been spared over the years from mortar fire from the Gaza Strip and close enough that larger rockets fired by militant teams can fly through the air.
Police officers evacuate a woman and a child after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. The rockets were fired as Hamas announced a new operation against Israel. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
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“The terrorists literally pounced on us, they went to Kibbutz Re’im, they went to Ofakim, it’s quite a miracle that we lost them,” said Stillman, who nonetheless returned to Tel Aviv on Sunday night, even as Palestinian terrorists continued on their way to move on for a walk.
Pelish said, “We can count more miracles here in Kibbutz Urim than tragedies here, and I just hope it stays that way for us. “
Ruth Marks Eglash is a veteran journalist in Jerusalem, Israel. She reports on and covers the Middle East and Europe. Originally from the UK, she has also worked freelance for many media outlets. You can follow Ruth on Twitter @reglash