The road has been freshly and beautifully repaved. Fresh grass and spring wildflowers fill the meadows. Almond trees are in full array of pink and white flowers. The birds sing full throated glorious songs. And butterflies dance around us reminding us of the young dancers there just 5 short months ago.

It’s a bit difficult to fathom that amidst all this natural beauty in Otef Aza, the Gaza Envelope border communities, thousands were massacred and hundreds abducted. Yesterday John and I went to the places it all started.

The border communities are the breadbasket of Israel. It is wrapped in large swaths of fields, mostly wheat, but also barley, soy, vegetables and some fruit orchards. Small agricultural kibbutzim are scattered among those fields: Nachal Oz, Alumim, Be’eri and Re’im. The first to be hit.

We passed through Ofakim (where Rachel held four terrorists at bay while serving them lunch, cookies and coffee). This small city seemed busy with people on the streets going about their business and everything open. Except for random bullet holes in signs and at bus stops, you’d never know this whole city was crawling with Hamas and civilians from Gaza bent on killing and raping and kidnapping.

Many of the kibbutzim are still closed to people who are/were not residents and their families. We spoke with a security guard at Shokeda. The Thai agricultural workers have returned, houses are being put back together as best as possible, and some residents have come back to work the fields. Most remain elsewhere- with family, in hotels, out of the country. Their flocks of sheep and their goats, which have been cared for by a farm in Rehovot, are back to stay. Life goes on although nothing here will be normal again.

We wound our way down route 232 “the road of terror” until we came to the place of the Supernova Music Festival of Love and Peace. Where there once was a tented dance pavilion with light show and DJs now is a memorial.

Further off in the distance was the place where vendors, food trucks and picnic tables were set up. Now families have marked with Israeli flags and makeshift memorials, the exact place where their loved ones lay slain. Candles, posters, photographs, letters, jewelry, lanterns are all decorations of lives lived fully. Trees under where the body lay are marked with farewells. It’s beyond sad.

Taped with yellow ribbon onto a tree limb were small black flags with yellow Hebrew letters. On the back side, a name and age. Each flag had parts of a most beautiful poem. I don’t know who wrote it, but here is the translation:

And from here we will rise to the beautiful things, a cake on the counter and to dance on the sand at sunrise barefoot a ray of sunshine on transparent water

And from here we will rise to the happy things, a lunch wedding, a table of crackers on Shabbat evening, a bucket with flowers overflowing with smiles

And from here we will rise to the simple things, the light that comes on in the windows of the houses, the silence between the beating of the beating heart, the juice of the fruit sellers standing at the intersections, a hovering kite tied with strings

And from here we will rise to things that have no name alongside the pain that will not go away to build us a warm and whole home.

We will also collect the things that live for the sake of silence in the pocket of love for free summer at sea a picture on the wall a song we loved run increase

We will also collect the things that live for the sake of silence in a pocket love for free summer at sea children’s laughter a sign on the door welcome

We will still find strength in us, we will take the reins, we will fulfill all the promises ourselves

We will still find strength in us, we will take the reins, we will fulfill all the promises ourselves.

A few meters further between the bomb shelters (placed there since the event) and the siren is a wall of the missing. It reminded us of the days post September 11, 2001, when the world changed forever then, too. Photographs and names of those abuducted. 150 days now. 5 months in hell.

Almost 1500 trees have been planted by the families of those massacred in an adjacent field. Each tree has a marker with the name and age of their deceased of blessed memory-

At the exit, the IDF man’s a tent. People can sit and watch a 3D video with Virtual Reality goggles. It’s the 47 minute video of the events that transpired that day. We couldn’t bear watching any more of the footage, so we moved on.

At the exit, we took a right onto route 232. There, on 7 October, cars that were escaping the shooting terrorists were told by soldiers to go left. Only they weren’t IDF soldiers. Hamas had stolen military uniforms to look official. It was a trap. Scores of people crossed the road, ran into the fields and were picked off like shooting at ducks. Now the fields are full of wildflowers. It is nature’s tribute to those slain.

About 150 meters down 232 is a bus stop and a shelter. Over 40 terrified young people crammed into that tiny space to escape death. Most never made it out alive. Today the bloodstained walls and ceiling have been whitewashed. You can still see the bullet marks splayed over the entire area. And the “flower” on the wall at the entrance where the grenade exploded. Today, the bullet-ridden bus stop and shelter are memorials.

In a remarkable feat of heroism, British Israeli soldier, Aner Eliakim Shapiro, age 22, lobbed seven grenades out of the shelter. They were thrown in by Hamas assassins in attempts to kill the kids trapped inside. Some had been shot beforehand. The eighth grenade killed Aner, but his actions saved several people who were rescued later that night by IDF.

Aner, on leave from the elite Nahal unit, went to the concert with his friend, Hirsh Goldberg. They were separated when the massacre started, but Aner ran into the shelter with several other young people. They were trying to escape the slaughter by Hamas/IDF imposters. He knew keeping the group calm was imperative…

“Hi everyone. I am Aner Shapira, I serve in the Orev unit of the Nahal brigade. My friends from the army are coming soon. I am going to take care of things here, so don’t worry.” Someone responded, “Thank you, Aner, we feel calmer now.”

Realizing that tactically the terrorists would choose to throw grenades into that dangerously small and enclosed space, Aner told everyone: “I’ll catch the grenades and throw them back –  and if I miss any, you throw them back.”

The dashcam video below shows the entire stream of events from outside the shelter. TRIGGER WARNING….Sensitive material does not show blood or murders, but is harrowing nonetheless:

https://youtu.be/OF4VVyRsnUs?si=17hHP-TTNxOe–GR

After visiting the shelter, we went back on the road where the carloads of people escaping the horrors of the concert had been waylaid and shot. Women were dragged out of the vehicles by their hair and gang raped then shot or stabbed. Terrorists laughing as they went from car to car. Vehicles set on fire. The cars were lined up on both sides of the street, horns still honking as the dead lay on top of them. People strewn across the blacktop.

Today there is no trace. No clue except for Israeli flags at odd intervals. The road has been repaved. Spring buds shoot from the trees where bullets once sprayed the air. Grass covers the ditches

Most of the kibbutzim were closed to visitors. Besides, it was getting late in the day and we had a 3 hour drive back.

I leave you with something beautiful that totally warmed my heart. When we were at Sheba for John’s oncology checkup, I visited some wounded soldiers. I was going to thank them and somehow cheer them by showing my support. But they cheered me. Their positive outlooks totally bolstered me and gave me hope for the future. No legs. No arm, each soldier thanked me profusely for visiting and expressed gratitude to G-d for sparing his life. All soldiers said they were working hard to return to normal lives with prosthetics.

One soldier, Eviatar, sustained severe burns over 70% of his body in November when a booby trapped building in Gaza exploded. Several of his mates were killed. Three friends from the army were also visiting. They were sitting in a circle singing. Eviatar invited me to join. I want to share this with you( he was a bit embarrassed by no eyebrows…) The song is “The People of Israel Live & Will Continue to Live” –