About 300 participants attended a community ceremony today at Kibbutz Kfar Aza marking two years since the October 7 attack, during which Kfar Aza was one of the hardest hit communities. Sixty-four members of the kibbutz were murdered on October 7; many security personnel who fought bravely lost their lives in the murderous attack, and nineteen members of the kibbutz were kidnapped.
“The kibbutz we knew and loved became a scene of massacre, trauma, loss, and bereavement,” kibbutz member Sagit Mor said at the ceremony. “The Kfar Aza we knew won’t return, but it will rise again. It’s not clear how or when, but it will rise.”
The ceremony continued with the reading of the names of the victims of the massacre in the kibbutz.
Natalie Zadikevitch, daughter of Omer Zadikevitch, a member of the kibbutz who was murdered on October 7, used her speech to reflect on “two years since we were destroyed—the houses, the community, the kibbutz, childhood, and dreams.”
“We held our hearts tight because we had hostages to bring back, and I can’t believe I’m reading this, but there are no more living hostages in Gaza, and that allows us to breathe a little,” Zadikevitch said. “But it won’t get any better than this. I would like to bring in optimism, to say that we will win, but we lost a long time ago, and there’s no way to change that. We lost families, friends, mothers, and fathers. We must look reality in the eyes and say: we simply lost. We have a duty. We must not let time soften the pain and distance those we lost. We have a duty to make the world not forget them—to be worthy of them.”
Yanai Katzir, whose father David was murdered on October 7, also reflected on the return of Gali and Ziv Berman, twins from Kibbutz Kfar Aza who were returned to Israel just days ago. “Now that Gali and Ziv have returned to us, we can try to start breathing,” Katzir said. “Being here is the most shattering thing there is. Being part of a community is a privilege. Being part of Kfar Aza—that is a privilege.”
“The previous life feels like a hallucination. People expect that after two years things will return to normal, that we should put October 7 aside. But this isn’t a building that takes a year to construct. It’s something that will take many long years,” he continued.
Katzir also made note of the inspiring initiatives that have come out of the past two years, including the Kumu Movement, a nonpartisan group founded by October 7 survivors and families of victims working to create a new Zionist vision based on accountability and mutual responsibility, as well as the groups that fought for the return of the hostages.
“These are heroes who come to repair,” Katzir said.
