{"id":85220,"date":"2024-02-12T08:48:06","date_gmt":"2024-02-12T06:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.technion.ac.il\/blog\/from-the-nova-festival-to-reserve-duty\/"},"modified":"2024-02-12T08:48:06","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T06:48:06","slug":"from-the-nova-festival-to-reserve-duty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technion.ac.il\/en\/blog\/from-the-nova-festival-to-reserve-duty\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Nova Festival to Reserve Duty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe were between exams, and we had waited a long time for this party,\u201d says Tal. \u201cFor these types of events, the location is only announced a few hours before the party begins, and we received the information at 7 p.m. We packed camping equipment and left Haifa in Omer\u2019s father\u2019s car.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

They recall that at the entrance to the party there was heavy security. At first, they sat outside a bit, chatting and drinking, and then, at around 3 a.m., they went inside. The three students describe the few hours they spent at the party as lots of fun and full of young, happy people. The rocket barrage at 6:30 a.m. caught them by complete surprise. \u201cFrom the moment it started, there was massive bombardment,\u201d says Tal. \u201cWe understood that something unusual was happening and we prepared to leave without packing our tent and other equipment.\u201d When they reached the parking lot, they hid between cars and waited about half an hour for a slight lull in the rockets in order to get to their car and leave the area. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI drove because I was the most alert and clear-headed,\u201d says Gal. \u201cThe road was a very crowded dirt path, one long traffic jam, but we succeeded in breaking away and reaching the main road. At that point, we had to decide whether to turn northwards towards Be\u2019eri or southwards towards Re\u2019im. Since there was a lot of traffic to go north, Tal suggested that we drive to Re\u2019im, the closest place, because we felt like sitting ducks and we wanted to reach a safe area as quickly as possible. At this point, we started to hear machine gun fire, but we still didn\u2019t understand what was going on around us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we were driving, the rocket fire didn\u2019t stop,\u201d recalls Tal. \u201cWe now know that the traffic jam heading north was caused by a roadblock set up by the terrorists, who shot indiscriminately, and if we would have driven in that direction, we would have encountered them and our situation would have been completely different.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>
From left to right: Tal, Gal and Omer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kibbutz Rei\u2019m\u2019s gate was open, and the students went in to look for a protected area. They hesitated whether to go to the small shelter at the entrance of the kibbutz, but decided to continue looking. Afterwards, they found out that many people were killed in that small shelter. As they were looking for a place to hide from the rockets between the houses, suddenly Tali, who lives on the kibbutz, heard them and opened her window. \u201cWe asked her for the key to the shelter near her house,\u201d says Gal. \u201cHer husband, Haim, opened the kibbutz\u2019s synagogue for us, since it also serves as a fortified shelter. He even left us a bottle of water, so that we would have something to drink while we waited. We thought we would be there around 20 minutes and then we would be on our way.\u201d Once they entered the synagogue at 7:20 a.m., the three would be forced to stay there for the next 13 hours.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we went inside the synagogue, we received notifications about terrorists infiltrating the area,\u201d Omer recounts, \u201cbut we still didn\u2019t understand the magnitude of what was happening. When you hear \u2018terrorist infiltration,\u2019 nobody imagines such an enormous scope. We expected five, ten, maybe 20 terrorists. It was only when we started to receive videos of events in the area, and we started to hear massive shooting near us, that we understood that this was something completely different.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

They quickly turned off the lights in the synagogue and guarded the door and window. \u201cTal and Gal held the door and I was ready to jump on anyone who would try opening the door. I figured that either I would succeed in neutralizing them or else we were doomed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the day, the three friends heard the terrorists patrolling outside the synagogue. \u201cAt around 10 a.m., they drank from the sink that was right outside the door,\u201d Tal describes. \u201cWe heard them speaking to each other in Arabic, and we heard their footsteps on the other side of the synagogue\u2019s door.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Much to their surprise, the terrorists didn\u2019t try to enter the synagogue. While the three were inside, terrorists shot at the building numerous times, but luckily none of the bullets penetrated the walls. At around 5 p.m., the cellular networks fell and for approximately two hours they were out of contact with the outside world. They only used their phones once an hour to send their families a sign of life. After 13 hours in the synagogue, during which they heard non-stop shooting and explosions and each moment could have been their last, the kibbutz\u2019s emergency response squad came and moved them to Tali and Haim\u2019s house. <\/span><\/p>\n

When contact with the three young men was cut off, Gal\u2019s father, who is a police volunteer, decided to drive south to Rei\u2019m. When he managed to get there, they were already in Tali and Haim\u2019s house. \u201cHe really lifted our spirits,\u201d recalls Omer. \u201cHe came with a handgun, which we could use for guarding. We felt a bit safer.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

At 3 a.m., an IDF unit from the Kfir Brigade that had been combing the houses in the kibbutz reached the group. However, they only received permission to leave on Sunday morning at 9 a.m.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe drive out from the kibbutz was completely surreal,\u201d Omer reveals. \u201cShell casings on the ground, burnt vehicles, RPG rockets on the road, bodies strewn on the side of the road, destroyed houses \u2013 a real war zone. My car was damaged by shrapnel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Even before they reached their homes, Gal and Omer received emergency call-up notices from the army. Gal is an officer in the Givati Brigade and Omer is an officer in the Combat Engineering Corps. Since his friends had been called up to reserve duty, Tal decided to volunteer to join the reserves, and on Sunday he also enlisted in the army. He serves in the unit that coordinates the government\u2019s activities in the West Bank. \u201cMy job entails preserving the IDF\u2019s international legitimacy in combat. I serve as a population officer of a maneuvering brigade, and mostly deal with events involving encounters with the Gazan population in the battlefield.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

All three students are still in reserve duty. \u201cWe are focused on helping and supporting the country however we can,\u201d says Omer. \u201cIf there is something that I take with me from this experience, it\u2019s a renewed appreciation for life. It\u2019s impossible not to understand how fragile life is, and I feel lucky that if I already passed these events and these are the people I was with.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>
From left to right: Tal, Gal and Omer on reserve duty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Haim and Tali<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Tali was born on Kibbutz Rei\u2019m and Haim has lived with her there for nearly 50 years. Until recently, she worked in the kibbutz\u2019s main office, and he was Re\u2019im\u2019s electrician. Two of their daughters live on Re\u2019im and the third is a student in Be\u2019er Sheva. Only Haim and Tali are left in the house, along with their cats. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDuring one of the lulls between rocket barrages, I went outside,\u201d says Haim, \u201cand suddenly I saw three guys. I asked them: \u2018What are you doing here?\u2019 They explained that they had escaped from the party. I gave them water and chocolate and accompanied them to the shelter. I told them not to open the door for anybody. We exchanged phone numbers so that we could be in contact while they were there. In the morning, Tali prepared schnitzels for everyone, and I asked our security officer to help them escape. For me, during those hours, they were like my children.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Tali and Haim are now in a hotel in Eilat, together with most of the other residents of their kibbutz. \u201cWhen we were told to evacuate, we thought they meant for a few days, so we just took a few pairs of underwear and socks. That was over two months ago, and we are soon supposed to move into buildings in Tel Aviv, which a high-tech company vacated for us for an entire year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe were between exams, and we had waited a long time for this party,\u201d says Tal. \u201cFor these types of events, the location is only announced a few hours before the party begins, and we received the information at 7 p.m. We packed camping equipment and left Haifa in Omer\u2019s father\u2019s car.\u201d They recall that… Continue Reading From the Nova Festival to Reserve Duty<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom the Nova Festival to Reserve Duty - \u05d4\u05d8\u05db\u05e0\u05d9\u05d5\u05df-\u05de\u05db\u05d5\u05df \u05d8\u05db\u05e0\u05d5\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d9 \u05dc\u05d9\u05e9\u05e8\u05d0\u05dc<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.technion.ac.il\/en\/blog\/from-the-nova-festival-to-reserve-duty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From the Nova Festival to Reserve Duty - 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