KFAR AZA, Israel — Just beyond the gate, past a row of destroyed and burned-out homes, one can see the ruined buildings in the northern portions of Gaza City.
On a good day, you can even see the Mediterranean.
Kibbutz Kfar Aza was one of the first — and among the hardest hit — Israeli communities attacked on Oct. 7, 2023 by 250 Palestinian terrorists flying on paragliders, and in pickup trucks and on motorcycles.
Numerous homes still bear the scars from that day, crews of workers were on site during our visit renovating homes damaged during the terror attack, with the hopes people will return.
Gaza is less than a kilometre away from Kfar Aza — an easy sprint across open ground and the kibbutz’s now-fallow farm fields where residents once grew wheat.
Since Oct. 7, many of the ruined homes have been converted into living memorials of the people who once lived there, with some open for dignitaries, politicians, journalists and Israeli soldiers to tour while visiting the kibbutz.
Sachar was at home having coffee with his wife on the morning of Oct. 7, his morning routine interrupted by a barrage of messages shortly after 6:30 a.m.
“After a second or so, we understood that we had to go inside our safe room,” he said.
Fifteen minutes later, he could hear terrorists outside his home.
Sachar was one of the lucky ones.
Sixty-two of the kibbutz’s 700 residents were killed, 19 were taken back into Gaza has hostages.
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Among the first places attacked was an area populated by young adults.
The rows of small, neat apartments are now burned-out shells, covered in bullet holes and scorched concrete.
Residents were shot in the beds, others were burned alive — many found with their hands bound behind their backs.
I first visited Kfar Aza last May, just eight months after the attack.
Back then, I remembered, the rumble of artillery and roar of tanks just past the kibbutz’s fence contrasted sharply with the community’s idyllic setting.
But with the uneasy ceasefire enacted earlier this year spawning an illusion of normalcy, Chen — another Kfar Aza survivor — told us not to take the peaceful setting at face value.
“It’s quiet now that there’s a ceasefire, but don’t take it wrong — this is a war zone,” she said.
“We’re still at war; we are still fighting. We still want all the hostages to be back, there is no other solution.”
Living so close to Gaza wasn’t always a concern, she said.
“People used ask me all the time, ‘How can you live like that, how can you raise children like that?’” she said.
“We used to go to the beach in Gaza, we lived differently.”
A short distance from Kfar Aza is the Supernova Music Festival site, where Palestinian terrorists murdered over 360 people and took 40 hostages.
The butchery at Supernova was especially grim, with numerous instances of sexual violence against both male and female Israelis, and terrorists boastfully videotaping themselves murdering innocent partygoers.
Many victims were found with their genitals mutilated, while others were lined up and systematically executed by the terrorists.
Today, the site is a collection of makeshift memorials to the partygoers killed that day.
Elad Bouhnik was among a group of friends who came to the site Monday to pay tribute to classmates killed on Oct. 7.
“They wanted to dance and enjoy life, but they got murdered. They were slaughtered,” he said.
Bnay Amalka gestured to one of the hundreds of stakes supporting photos and mementos of the murdered partygoers.
“You feel sad and a little bit scared,” he said
“This is what our enemy can do. Just a lot of death.”