Thomas Hand and the survivors of the massacre at Kibbutz Be\u2019eri hope to return home in 2026. <\/i>(photo by Gil Zohar)<\/i><\/p>\n
Kibbutz Hatzerim, eight kilometres west of Be\u2019er Sheva, best known for its drip-irrigation plant, also houses the newly established quarter here for the survivors of Hamas\u2019s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of more than 130 of Kibbutz Be\u2019eri\u2019s 1,071 residents. Emily Hand and her Dublin-born father Thomas, 64, are among the 200 refugees living there. In 2026, they hope to move back to rebuilt homes in their community alongside the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still in the stage of demolishing the houses beyond repair,\u201d Hand said. A quarter of Be\u2019eri\u2019s housing is unsalvageable.<\/p>\n
Some vegetation has been planted around the new temporary bungalows at Hatzerim, and the site is beginning to resemble a kibbutz neighbourhood. But little else is normal.<\/p>\n
The Hands marked the anniversary of Emily\u2019s release from imprisonment in the tunnels of Gaza on Nov. 26. A week earlier, the Irish-Israeli celebrated her 10th\u00a0birthday. Thomas no longer allows his daughter to be interviewed by the media. The probing questions she faced raised horrific memories of captivity that she is still struggling to process, said her father. She has engaged in various therapies, including seeing a psychologist weekly, horse riding and puppy love with their pooch, Johnsey.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s living day to day, enjoying every day,\u201d her father said.<\/p>\n
The Hands moved to their home at Hatzerim shortly before Rosh Hashanah and Emily started the new school year there. Before then, they had been sheltered at Kibbutz Ein Gedi\u2019s hotel by the Dead Sea.<\/p>\n
Like his daughter, Hand too is struggling. In the days after Oct. 7, he was initially informed his daughter had been murdered. After a month, that assessment was revised to missing. After more uncertainty, she was then declared a hostage \u2013 and finally released in a swap for Hamas gunmen and other terrorists.<\/p>\n
The Hand household is still decorated with balloons from Emily\u2019s recent birthday party. Among the guests were fellow hostages Noa Argamani, Ra\u2019aya Rotem and Hila Rotem Shoshani, who surprised Emily with a cake and candles. Argamani, who was imprisoned with Hand, was rescued on June 8, after 245 days in captivity,\u00a0in a joint operation by the Israel Defence Forces, Shabak (Israel\u2019s security agency) and Israel Police.<\/p>\n
Hand said Emily is adjusting \u201cincredibly well.\u201d But then he contextualized what that means: \u201cShe still sleeps with me. Usually in my bed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was captured from a MaMaD [safe room]. And that\u2019s a trigger,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The constant roar of jets flying overhead to and from the nearby Hatzerim Air Base adds to their ill-ease. Hand\u2019s conversation is punctuated by sighs and tears. \u201cDon\u2019t mind me,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just part of the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
None of the kibbutz\u2019s protected spaces had bulletproof doors, he noted. His own MaMaD wasn\u2019t equipped with a lock, he added. \u201cI just had to hope and pray.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other general tactical mistakes included storing the kibbutz\u2019s guns and ammo in a central location rather than having them distributed among people\u2019s homes. Half the members of Be\u2019eri\u2019s emergency response team were gunned down trying to reach the armoury, Hand said.<\/p>\n
His first concern on Oct. 7 was for Emily, who was sleeping over at a friend\u2019s house 300 metres away. With bullets flying, there was no chance to run there to attempt to rescue her, he recalled.<\/p>\n
He left his shelter at 10 a.m. Armed with his pistol, two magazine clips and a bullet in the chamber, he positioned himself by his kitchen window, which offered a wide field of fire. The Hand family house was relatively untouched apart from shrapnel damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile I couldn\u2019t protect my daughter, I was able to protect three houses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hand remained at his post until 11:30 p.m., when IDF soldiers arrived.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amount of guilt that I felt at not going to save her [Emily] even at the risk of my own life…. But I knew I would be dead, and she would be an orphan. It was a very big thing afterwards. At the time, I was just in survival mode.\u201d<\/p>\n
With self-deprecating humour, Hand remembered he only had two cans of beer in the fridge that Saturday morning. It\u2019s a mistake he has never repeated, he said, now always having a case of suds on hand.<\/p>\n
Another cause of guilt is not being able to work. He had previously been employed at Be\u2019eri\u2019s printshop, and then as a painter at its toy and furniture factory. While the workshop has reopened, Hand is unable to commute the 90 minutes there, since he must stay close to his daughter. \u201cI have to keep her normalized,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve given me a lot of leeway,\u201d Hand said of the kibbutz secretariat.\u00a0\u00a0In the meantime, he devotes a lot of time to hostage issues.<\/p>\n
Looking wistful, he concluded: \u201cI will not feel safe going back to Be\u2019eri with this government in power, and without Hamas being completely crushed.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Gil Zohar<\/b> is a writer and tour guide in Jerusalem.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thomas Hand and the survivors of the massacre at Kibbutz Be\u2019eri hope to return home in 2026. (photo by Gil Zohar) Kibbutz Hatzerim, eight kilometres west of Be\u2019er Sheva, best known for its drip-irrigation plant, also houses the newly established quarter here for the survivors of Hamas\u2019s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of more than 130 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45820,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4329],"tags":[4330,22727,22725,23557],"class_list":["post-45819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","tag-israel","tag-kibbutz-beeri","tag-oct-7","tag-thomas-hand"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}