Kibbutz Nir Oz, located just a mile from the Gaza border, was among the places hardest hit on 7 October 2023. Three years later, the dining room, once the bustling heart of the community, sits empty, with birds cooing among the ceiling tiles. Residents Dalit Ram Aharon and her husband Achi survived by hiding in their shelter for nearly 12 hours that day.
“We used to come and see each other, eat together. There were lots of activities here, also holidays to celebrate,” Dalit recalled, showing a reporter around the kibbutz. By the glass entrance doors, dotted with bullet holes, postboxes for each household bear stickers: red for those killed, black for those taken hostage. “That's one out of four of us: murdered or kidnapped,” she said. “Including children and babies.”
The house of the Siman Tov family remains burnt out, a wind chime still hanging by the door. A picture shows Tamar and Yonatan with their three young children. The parents were shot through the door of their bomb shelter, which was designed to protect against rockets from Gaza, not gunfire. Dalit recalled the last social media messages sent by Tamar to her neighbours.
As Israel marks the third anniversary of its deadliest-ever day, residents are grappling with the question of whether and how to return. Dalit and Achi say they want to move back to Nir Oz “in the memory” of the friends they lost. The kibbutz, once a close-knit community of 400, now faces an uncertain future.