Kibbutz Beri, Israel. The motorcycles entered at 6am on Saturday, October 7, each with two terrorists armed with AK47 rifles and grenade launchers. Without any major setbacks, they eliminated the handful of security guards, arrived at the houses one by one, and murdered their residents in cold blood, many in their beds: men, women, children, and babies.
They then proceeded to destroy the houses and flee to Gaza with kidnapped people and some bodies of murdered people to display to the cheering crowd. At the end of that Saturday that changed history, 130 residents of Beri were massacred, 10% of the total, two dozen were kidnapped, and 120 of the 350 houses were destroyed, in addition to the 367 young people brutally murdered at the Supernova music festival that took place on the grounds of the kibbutz.
The same Dantesque scenario was repeated in the nearby towns where the Hamas terrorists came to “liberate Palestine” with those same methods: massacre, rape, humiliation, and destruction to immediately celebrate their heroic deed in Gaza, which that disastrous 7/10 left 1,200 dead, 252 kidnapped, destruction, and the clear warning from Hamas that “there will be many more October 7ths” since the Jewish genocide and the destruction of Israel are its reasons for being established in its founding charter.
We are in Beri helping with the harvest of thousands of tangerines that grow on the small bushes, each with dozens of sweet, perfect fruits. Also that of lemons, fruits that were collected by Palestinian workers who came from the Hebron area and who today, thanks to Hamas, are without work. The residents of these kibbutzim have always supported the Palestinian cause and two-state peace. Thousands of Gazans worked here every day, and hundreds of Palestinian children and adults received medical treatment in Israel thanks to its residents, several of whom were dismembered by those who helped for so many years.
Israel did not want this war; Hamas started it. If 7/10 had not happened, there would be no war in Gaza, no deaths, no destruction, and no presidents unleashed in their trills. Nor does Israel want the war that could ensue in the north since, from its border with Lebanon, Hezbollah, responding to its puppet masters in Tehran, has attacked Israel incessantly since that same October 7 "in solidarity with Gaza" without any consideration. by the Lebanese. Israel is waging an existential war on several fronts, orchestrated by Iran.
After six months, the war continues, and 134 Israeli kidnapped people remain in captivity, cynically used by Hamas for their designs. The Palestinian division between Hamas and Fatah, which accused the former of having created a “new naqba (catastrophe)” on 7/10, is increasingly deepening, and there is no clarity about control of Gaza the day after, beyond the certainty that it will not be Hamas, nor will it be Israel.
In Israel, a robust parliamentary democracy, protests are growing, calling for new elections after the traumatic 7/10 and its consequences, both internal and external.
This editorial was originally published in Spanish in El Espectador.
