Though it was the site of an unimaginably cruel massacre 100 days before, the kibbutz had managed to reclaim some of its pastoral charm, at least in the woodland outside the devastated border community.
The fields ringing the kibbutz, covered with verdant winter grass, rose in gentle swells. Peacocks bobbed and chattered as they went about their business in a lot next to the yellow kibbutz gate, the very same site that had been packed with IDF troops, ZAKA body retrieval teams, and stacks of terrorist remains in the days after October 7.
On Sunday, the lot was mostly empty, with the exception of a few cars parked in the mud and a convoy of Hummers belonging to the Archimedes unit, a phalanx of soldiers tasked with serving as a mobile command center for Col. Elad Shushan, commander of the 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade.
The veteran reservists had temporarily left the battlefield to escort The Times of Israel into the heart of the Gaza Strip, where Shushan was inspecting a major Hamas tunnel exposed the previous night and slated to be destroyed within hours.
It was my first time back in Gaza since I was released from reserve duty weeks earlier, after months serving as an officer in the 98th Division about 15 kilometers to the south near Khan Younis.
Though the soldiers in the Hummers weren’t the same ones I served with, their easygoing humor and the eclectic mix of military-issue and self-purchased gear was immediately familiar. READ MORE