Looking into Kfar Aza, five months after the October 7 massacre - analysis

• Published date: 20 March 2024
• Author: SETH J. FRANTZMAN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Hamas crossed the mile of open fields that separated the kibbutz from Gaza and massacred its people

I visited Kfar Aza on Wednesday. It was warm, the kind of spring day that would usually be full of life. However, today, this community – which once hosted almost 900 people – stands empty. Guards stand at the entrance, and people patrol in cars or golf carts.

Many groups have visited to witness the evidence of the massacre and hear the stories of the place. One resident provided a tour, but like the rest of the community, was evacuated.

The tour began in the reverse of how Hamas would have encountered the community – in the center, and moving outwards towards the fence. Many houses do not look damaged on the outside, but life has been frozen nonetheless; one yard still had a sukkah in the yard. Bicycles, toys, everything that marks a peaceful life is here.

Sukkah in Kfar Aza, five months after October 7, which fell on Simchat Torah following the end of Sukkot (credit: Seth J. Frantzman)

But now there is no civilian life. Only the birds make noise, along with the humming of a Hermes 450 drone overhead, the kind used for surveillance and airstrikes. There was also, at times, the roar of artillery.

But, the war felt distant on a more general level. Here, life stopped; we are still living October 7 over and over again – that is how other border residents described it.

Before vs. after the attack

Before the war, there were over 100 children in Kfar Aza, along with many young people, in a neighborhood of small, older white homes near the fence. This area bore the brunt of the attack. A small path leads from there, laid out in several lines, perpendicular to the border.

Some of the homes were burned, others were ransacked and riddled with bullet holes. Signs on each small home describe who was killed: "Nitzan Libstein was brutally murdered in this house"; "Ofir Shoshani was brutally murdered in this house."

At one end of the group of youth homes is a house with a sign that the family erected after October. 7: "Sivani's house," in memory of Sivan Elkabets and Naor Hasidim. "I am Sivan's mother. I hold a notebook close to me. I am writing to my daughter because I miss her. After all, I need her, because I feel that I failed to keep her safe," the sign reads. It describes the story of October 7 and the murder of Sivan and Naor. "Come, see, may take pictures, and remember forever – what the monsters did on October 7, 2023," the sign reads.

Sivan's house is one of the...