Jeremy Ben-Ami
Two years after the horrors of 7 October, few names evoke the tragedy more than Kfar Aza, a small, bucolic kibbutz less than two miles from Gaza that came under brutal attack that day.
For years, I visited Kfar Aza with groups of policymakers and American guests on trips designed to help them understand what life on the border meant and what a path toward conflict resolution might entail.
One of our occasional hosts in the town was Ofir Libstein, the head of the regional council – basically the mayor of the area. Ofir firmly believed that Israel’s long-term security depended on a future for his Palestinian neighbors in Gaza as well. He was an activist and a public voice for the idea that stability for his region and constituents depended on achieving peace.
On 7 October 2023, he fought to defend his community and was among the first to die. In all, 62 residents of Kfar Aza were killed that day; 19 were taken hostage, including twin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, who remain in Gaza to this day.
When I last visited the kibbutz this summer, I met one of Ofir’s close friends, a man my age who survived by clinging to his safe-room door handle for hours while his neighbors were massacred. Despite everything, he told me peace must still be the path forward – that Palestinians in Gaza must be given something to live for. His words, and his refusal to surrender hope, moved me to tears.
Twenty-five years ago, while living in Israel and studying Hebrew, I befriended a classmate named Abed, an optometrist from Gaza City. He invited me to his family’s home for dinner one weekend. Conversation was halting, limited by language, but the message conveyed by all I met was a desire for nothing more than to live normal lives, to raise families, work and coexist.
Over the years, friends, colleagues and I have heard similar stories from Palestinians in Gaza – teachers, doctors and entrepreneurs who remembered the days when there was interconnection between Gaza and Israeli border communities, when small but real human connections were possible.
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