Kibbutz Survivors’ Journey Home Begins

As they try to build a future, community members debate the way forward

- CARRIE KELLER-LYNN

KIBBUTZ HATZERIM, Israel-The neat rows of prefabricated tan houses pressed up against the Negev Desert look like an oasis of calm. Families are settling into new homes.

Children play basketball and skip rope as the sun sets.

But the newest arrivals in Hatzerim aren't yet at peace.

They are the survivors of Kibbutz Be'eri, one of the hardesthit communities in Hamas's attack of Oct. 7, 2023.

The newly built homes are the next stop on their journey home. After the attack on the agricultural community killed 100 of their neighbors, the state put most of the roughly 1,000 survivors in hotels by the Dead Sea, 50 miles to the east.

Since September, they have started moving into Hatzerim, opting to stick together as a community. It is a temporary stop expected to last at least two years, until the rebuilding of Be'eri is complete. People here describe a life caught between the past and the future.