YIR: Father of Local Israeli Murdered on Oct. 7

The AJT first reported that the father of local Israeli Avishay Ben Zvi was killed in the Oct. 7 massacre conducted by Hamas terrorists from Gaza just days later. The 80-year-old man who had Parkinson’s disease was one of 46 people murdered that day on Kibbutz Nir Oz. Of those, 34 were members of the kibbutz, located less than two miles from the Gaza border, and 12 were Thai employees.

According to Ben Zvi, in addition to those killed, 77 were abducted from the kibbutz where he grew up. As of Dec. 13, 40 had been released from their captors and 31 were still held hostage, nine of whom are age 70 or older. The bodies of six others were still in Gaza. “The kibbutz is keeping a file with their names,” he told the AJT.

On Oct. 6, before thousands of Hamas terrorists and their allies burst across the border by land, air, and sea, killing at least 1,200 – mostly civilians – Kibbutz Nir Oz was home to about 400 people. Now surviving residents have been internally displaced, living in a hotel in Eilat and many of their homes have been destroyed, burnt to the ground.

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Ben Zvi’s family learned of his father’s murder thanks to the quick thinking of the elderly man’s Filipino caregiver, who managed to call a friend to say that he was being kidnapped and taken hostage to Gaza along with more than 200 others – again, mostly civilians – that included citizens from the U.S. as well as many other countries.

On the first day of the temporary truce Israel and Hamas agreed to, which included trucks of aid driving into Gaza as well as the release of women and children hostages taken from Israel in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, Ben Zvi and his family were shocked. In addition to 13 Israeli hostages freed – 12 of whom were from Kibbutz Nir Oz – 10 Thai workers and one Filipino caregiver were freed. The latter was Gelienor “Jimmy” Pacheco, 33, who had worked for the Ben Zvi family for four years.

“We were surprised he was released,” said Ben Zvi who lived on Kibbutz Nir Oz from the time he was about one year old until he was 25. He has lived in Atlanta for about a decade. “We saw him in the Red Cross pictures,” but Pacheco and the 10 Thai workers who were also released the first day were not on any lists of hostages released by Hamas.

“Jimmy is like a kibbutz member because he worked for the family,” emphasized Ben Zvi, who noted that his brothers, Gilad and Ido, greeted Jimmy at the hospital to which he was taken after his release. “He lost weight during his captivity,” said Ben Zvi.

The temporary agreement called for 50 Israelis to be freed during the initial four-day truce. The truce was extended a couple of times but ended after a week. Some foreign nationals, not included in the agreement, were also released by Hamas.

For Ben Zvi, it’s been a harrowing couple of months. Although he moved away from the kibbutz 25 years ago, he still considers the community his family. He is on two Israeli WhatsApp groups, one of which includes about 200 former residents who have moved away. The other group consists of the dozen or so people who grew up in his age cohort.

There were 11 children in the younger Ben Zvi’s cohort, born in 1973. Each age group was given a name; his group was called Erez, which means cedar in English.

Ben Zvi said all of the former residents of Nir Oz are helping to support the kibbutz in any way they can, whether it is picking crops such as avocados, gathering food and clothes or providing transportation to the evacuated residents, helping the elderly or raising donations to help the survivors.

According to Ben Zvi, a donation event for Kibbutz Nir Oz is scheduled for Jan. 6 in Roswell, where he will be speaking.

“It’s a strong community,” he said. “From far away, I can see that everyone is supportive of each other.” He added that his friends and relatives won’t give up on regaining the freedom of the rest of the hostages.

Estimates are that it will take three years to rebuild the kibbutz, but “not everyone will decide to return there. It’s very hard with the memories of those who died,” said Ben Zvi. Meanwhile, survivors of Kibbutz Nir Oz may live in apartments newly built in Kiryat Gat in Southern Israel. There’s talk of building a community center for the residents who are accustomed to more communal living.