The Gates of Gaza: betrayal, survival and hope

A book review by Dr Anne Sarzin

What happens when hopes for peaceful co-existence with your neighbours are smashed to smithereens by endless hordes of Hamas terrorists on a murderous rampage that directly threatens your family, your community and your country?

What happens to your cherished belief in a better future for all children on both sides of the Gazan border when you, your wife and two little children endure and miraculously survive a ten-hour nightmare? When you open your front door, you discover bodies of  Hamas terrorists outside, one holding an RPG still pointed at your neighbour’s house. What then?

It is not unreasonable to presume that the Hamas invasion of southern Israel on 7 October 2023 and their meticulously planned torture, rape,  murder and abduction of innocents would not only shatter your sense of security and instantly reconfigure the comfortable parameters of life but, subsequently, would also challenge your own ideals of peace with neighbours on the other side of the fence, however cherished and deep-rooted those hopes might have been.

Before 7 October, Nahal Oz kibbutzniks were peaceful agriculturalists, milking cows, planting crops, creating gardens and living in harmony among themselves and with the Gazans they knew and with whom they worked now and then. In the early years, they visited their markets, restaurants and beaches.

It was the idyllic agrarian environment of the kibbutz and their community agenda predicated on achieving harmony with Gazans that attracted journalist Amir Tibon and his wife Miri. They also identified with the foundational Zionist ideology underpinning the community’s existence from the first days of the kibbutz, namely, working the land right up to the country’s border. These were powerful incentives for the young couple to leave their fulfilling lives in Tel Aviv for their dream of a place not only of tranquillity and beauty but one with strategic goals and meaning.  Nahal Oz provided all they yearned for and believed in. It was a thriving kibbutz, and they believed their working and living presence there strengthened the border and contributed to a more secure future for Israelis. In their new home, they looked with optimism towards the future and envisioned a time of peace.

As an experienced senior journalist on the staff of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Amir is an astute and accurate observer with a trained memory. He is also a skilled researcher and a fluent writer in English. The major personal narrative of his book is interspersed with the his immersion in Israeli history, presented in chapters that alternate with the straightforward narrative. It is in these reviews of history that Amir interrogates and identifies the errors of the past and exposes the country’s political and military fault lines and the disastrous consequences that have imperilled land and lives. Thus, the issues and ideologies of the past and Amir’s cogent analysis contrasts with the fevered events of the present, adding immeasurably to the depth, interest and impact of this adrenalin-charged story.

When rockets rained down on the kibbutz early on that ill-fated Saturday morning on 7 October, Amir and Miri immediately joined their little girls still asleep in their bedroom that was also the family’s safe-room. From the unrelenting barrage of rockets, they realised this was an unusual event unlike previous attacks they had lived through. The catastrophic nature of their situation became more apparent when they heard gunfire and Arabic outside their safe-room and understood that Hamas terrorists had infiltrated the kibbutz and were trying to enter their home, clearly undeterred by the sight of a baby stroller outside their front door. At that very moment, Amir knew that their lives, including those of their children, were in danger, and his priority was to ensure the children remained silent, so as not to reveal their presence to attackers.

Amir had messaged his father, retired IDF Major General Noam Tibon, an acknowledged expert in counterterrorism, briefly describing their critical situation. Noam, aged 63, who rose through the ranks to become a senior commander of the 202 Paratroopers Battalion, the Nahal Brigade and the West Bank Division, never hesitated. He advised Amir to keep the door of their safe-room locked and to be as silent as possible. Noam loaded his pistol and, with his wife Gali driving, they left their home in Tel Aviv, heading south to rescue their son and his family.

When one considers that more than 3000 Hamas terrorists—three divisions of well-armed fighters armed with RPGs, grenades and sophisticated weaponry—poured into southern Israel, Noam’s task seems a suicide mission. En route to Nahal Oz, he and Gali saved the lives of two young people fleeing the death and devastation of the Nova Music Festival. The young couple recounted their terrifying ordeal, so Noam and Gali were under no illusions about the dangers ahead. Leaving Gali to drive three seriously injured soldiers to hospital, Noam embarked on his mercy mission at Nahal Oz,  movingly documented in a chapter titled, ‘Saba [grandfather] will come and get us out of here’.

This book is a remarkable testament to heroism and courage, as well as an insightful and fascinating chronicle of history—past and contemporary—with its successes and failures. That Amir Tibon, his wife Miri and their two little girls are alive today seems a miracle amid the death and destruction of that day. And it is here that the miraculous intertwines with the mystical. There is a Talmudic story that when the Hebrews left Egypt millennia ago, the dogs never barked to alert Egyptians to their departure. Strangely, the family’s dog remained silent for ten hours outside their Nahal Oz home and never barked once or betrayed in any way the presence of the family in their safe-room.

Mysticism aside, ultimately, this book presents a stinging indictment of Israel’s politicians and leadership for their failure to prevent this slaughter on their watch, the brutal extinguishment of 1,200 precious lives, ‘none of whom deserved to die’. In the last lines of the book, Amir’s disillusionment is clear. He acknowledges, however, that some still believe in peace with people on the other side. He berates current leaders on both sides, the ’psychopaths and egomaniacs, some of whom dream of endless war and of annihilating the other side, whatever the cost. Others are simply too weak and feckless to stand up to those who have dragged all of us into this nightmare’.

Fortunately, Amir derives comfort and inspiration from his little girls, Galia and Carmel, whom he deems the real heroes of this story. ‘Thank you for bringing so much light into this world,’ he writes. ‘You…deserve a better future. I promise that we won’t rest until we make it happen.’

 

The Gates of Gaza: a story of betrayal, survival, and hope in Israel’s borderlands

Amir Tibon

Scribe, Melbourne

2024