Fifty days after being devastated in the Simchat Torah massacre, the Israeli agricultural communities bordering Gaza began sowing wheat in their fields, as they do every year.
Much depleted, with hundreds of their members murdered, many still held captive in Gaza, and unable to return to their destroyed homes until Hamas’s military capabilities have been obliterated, the kibbutzim are still doing what they do.
The communal dining-hall in Be’eri, one of the kibbutzim worst hit in the massacre, was full again, with members and volunteers who had arrived from all over Israel to work in the fields and the factories.
In the evenings, as the displaced families gathered around television screens in the hotels where they have been given temporary accommodation, they anxiously scanned the first images coming out of Gaza of the handover of the hostages from Hamas to the Red Cross, identifying those who had been missing for more than seven weeks.
An elderly hostage being released by Hamas (Photo: Flash 90)
While much of the attention and pent-up joy on their return has been focused on the captive children, it was the grandmothers who embodied the indomitable kibbutz spirit, walking out of Gaza defiantly.
Some had even argued with their captors that they should remain there and allow the mothers of the released children to leave with them instead.
Also this week, one Israeli leader who has yet to meet the displaced kibbutzniks arrived in Kfar Aza, another of the worst-hit, for a photo-opportunity with a stout man wearing a tiny flak-jacket that looked ridiculously like a green bib on a baby’s belly.
Elon Musk, one of the richest men on Earth, stung by the criticism over the hatred he has allowed to spread on the X/Twitter social network he owns, and even more by the decision of major companies to stop advertising there, had rushed to Israel for an 11-hour visit on Monday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was only too happy to show him round.
Not welcome: Benjamin Netanyahu with Elon Musk (left) at Kfar Aza (Photo: Flash 90)
The kibbutzniks of Kfar Aza were furious. Netanyahu’s office hadn’t thought to even notify them that he would be visiting.
One of them was forced to relive the horrors when he saw the footage on television of the prime minister and the billionaire walking through the ruined rooms of his family’s home.
“No one asked us,” he said in an interview in the Israeli media. “He went in as if nothing had happened, as if there wasn’t a massacre.
”It’s just not right. I felt terrible seeing it. I am sickened every time I see how the entire house is ruined and all our belongings scattered around.”
Benjamin Netanyahu shows Elon Musk the horrors of the October 7 massacre at Kibbutz Kfar Aza (Photo: Flash 90)
Two days later, Netanyahu finally got around to meeting representatives of the communities, 54 days after the massacre. Several kibbutzim declined to attend.
Qatar shuttle:
Meanwhile, Israel’s negotiating team, led by Mossad Chief David Barnea, was shuttling back and forth from the Qatari capital of Doha in an attempt to secure the release of more hostages.
There has been a lot of consternation over the way the Qatari regime, Hamas’s patrons, hosts and cheerleaders through the pro-Hamas Al Jazeera network, has been allowed to dominate the talks, but one Israeli intelligence official sees it differently:
“The Qataris originally would have preferred to have nothing to do with this, because they are scared of being identified too closely with Hamas in the west.
”Which they should be. We played on these fears to get them to serve as the go-betweens.
”That doesn’t mean Qatar won’t have to pay one day for its support for Hamas, it will. But for now, we have people in Gaza we need to save.”
On Tuesday, as the two-day extension of the truce neared its end, the delegation was back in Doha, along with CIA director William Burns and senior Egyptian intelligence officers.
As the talks were still ongoing, reports of an “all-for-all” deal, in which Hamas would release all the hostages, in return for all the Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and a lengthy ceasefire, began to circulate.
Screen shot of Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip handed over to Red Cross (Photo: Flash 90)
An Israeli defence official deeply involved in the talks was quick to scotch the rumour. “We have decided that the first priority is releasing all the children and civilian women,” he emphasised.
“And while most have now been released, there are still around 30 hostages in that category.
”While Hamas doesn’t release them, and we know that despite their excuses that they can’t locate all of them — they can — we’re not going on to the other categories.”
The bleak truth is that every category of hostage has a price for Hamas. Non-Israelis are the cheapest, with Thai and Nepali workers being released after their government reached a private arrangement with the Iranian regime.
After that come Israeli children and civilian women whose price for release has been set at three Palestinian prisoners each and a day’s truce in Gaza in return for the release of ten hostages.
The prices for the other categories — Israeli men over the age of reserve duty, men who are not active soldiers but are considered combatants by Hamas because they may be reservists, women and men soldiers — have yet to be set.
The report on negotiations over these came from the Qatari side, on behalf of Hamas and in an attempt to create the expectation of a further, indefinite truce, leading to a ceasefire, which would allow Hamas to emerge, bloodied, but intact and resume control of Gaza.
Which is why the Israeli side was quick to scotch the report and insist on completing the release of all civilian women and children first.
As this column was being written, there wasn’t yet an official agreement on an extension of the truce for a further three days, which would allow for the release of around 30 more women and children, but the Israeli side was pretty confident it would happen.
And that there wouldn’t be a further truce after the weekend, as agreeing the price for the next category will take time and a further pummelling of Hamas first.
