The Weissmanns
What we told
On October 7, 2023, at 6:30 a.m., the red alert sounded in the moshav of Netiv Haasara, a small Israeli agricultural village so close to the Gaza Strip that the muezzin can be heard there. Residents barricaded themselves in the fortified room of their homes or ran toward rocket shelters. But, after a deluge of bombs, everyone understood that this was not an attack like we were used to. Hamas terrorists had infiltrated the village and WhatsApp messages were going wild: “Help! They’re setting fire! », “They are at my house, they are shaking the door!” Come get me! »
The army took nine hours to intervene, twenty residents were killed by bullets and grenades or burned alive. The twenty-three members of the Weissmann family miraculously escaped the massacre. It was in a kibbutz in the suburbs of Tel Aviv that we met them a few weeks later, around Patriarch Yaakov, born in France in 1940, hidden during the war and emigrated to Israel in 1959. They were welcomed there with other refugees, traumatized, in mourning, unable to know if life could ever resume at the moshav.
What has happened since
Yaakov Weissmann, 84, passing through France “to get some fresh air” tells us about the evolution of his wounded tribe over the past year. No more nomadism and camping among one or the other. Failing to obtain permission to return to their homes, 400 meters from the Gaza border, the Moshav members obtained accommodation from the Israeli government in the town of Ashkelon, 15 kilometers from Netiv Haasara. Families grouped together in the same buildings, recreating the community spirit of the village. The elders were offered furnished apartments overlooking the sea.
The children have returned to school, a bus service providing access to the various establishments. As for the young people, they “proudly” do their military service. A semblance of normal life while waiting for the return to mochav, which 80% of residents, according to an internal survey, wish to return to as soon as possible. On the condition of no longer being exposed, as they were since 2002, to daily rockets coming from Gaza. “For there is anger, says Yaakov Weissmann. Lots of anger and weariness. To return home, we need assurance that security will be guaranteed and that we will no longer live on constant alert. »
The crops could not wait, and for six months, the village’s farmers have resumed work on their land, assisted by Thai workers who, leaving the day after the attacks, returned to Israel. Most, like Yaakov’s youngest daughter Morani’s husband, commute every day. Others defied the ban and resettled in the village, despite the rockets which still sometimes fall and the tremors of the Israeli army’s bombings. The chrysanthemum fields have bloomed again, for export. The seeds of tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers are marketed, as are the raspberry crops for which Mor, a granddaughter of Yaakov, is responsible for marketing.
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