{"id":505005,"date":"2026-06-22T06:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T06:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/505005\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T06:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T06:24:16","slug":"i-survived-i-returned-home-the-residents-returning-to-kibbutz-holit-after-oct-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/505005\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I survived, I returned home\u2019: The residents returning to Kibbutz Holit after Oct. 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

For anyone entering Kibbutz Holit<\/a>, about 1.2 kilometers from the Gaza border, the community still looks like a construction site nearly three years after the October 7 massacre. Homes are being rebuilt, public buildings are under renovation and the scars of that day remain visible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I heard they were starting to rebuild, I decided to return,\u201d says Roni (\u201cRonileh\u201d) Levy, a resident of the Kibbutz, whose house was badly damaged on October 7 and has stood largely deserted ever since. \u201cI wanted to be home myself, to see, to supervise, to make sure things were being done properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"\u05e8\u05d5\u05e0\u05d9<\/a>\"\u05e8\u05d5\u05e0\u05d9<\/p>\n

\u2018I survived. I returned home\u2019 Roni Levy<\/p>\n

(Photo: Herzl Yosef)<\/p>\n

Her dog, Gurkhaam, also played a part, she said, as did the return of her sister to nearby Kibbutz Sufa<\/a>. \u201cBut mainly, I simply wanted to stop being evacuated.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trauma of October 7 has not faded. Levy was alone at home when Hamas terrorists infiltrated the kibbutz. \u201cOn October 7, I woke up at 6:30 a.m. Slowly, I heard gunfire outside, close to the house. I understood that these shots were meant to kill. I ran to the safe room, locked it with the lock I had wisely installed years earlier and hid under the bed.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 7:16 a.m., she said, the terrorists entered her home. \u201cThey blew up my house. They broke and destroyed things, setting them on fire. At some point, they came close to the room. I could really hear everything. I sent my sisters a message: \u2018I love you, goodbye.\u2019 And suddenly, the terrorists left.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around 9 a.m., a neighbor managed to rescue her. Later that afternoon, she was evacuated by IDF forces. \u201cWhen I left the kibbutz, I saw bodies lying on the road, burned cars and motorcycles. That was when I understood the scale of the disaster Holit had endured.\u201d<\/p>\n

After months of evacuation, Levy returned in January, while waiting for her new home to be built. \u201cI always joke that I ruin people\u2019s drama,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone is looking for big stories of resilience, but I see things a little differently. I survived. I returned home. Joy wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levy is not alone. Six other families returned with her to Kibbutz Holit before the official return, which is expected in August. For Tanya Reitzin, the widow of police officer Michael Reitzin, who died by suicide about a year and a half ago, returning to Holit also means facing immense personal pain. <\/p>\n

Michael, an intelligence officer in the police, heard his friends and commanders fighting for their lives over the radio on October 7, she said. \u201cIn one of the hardest moments of our lives, he looked at me and said: \u2018You have to let me go. I won\u2019t be able to live with myself if I don\u2019t get to them.\u2019 He left the house, encountered terrorists, drew them away from the residential neighborhood and later joined the Shaldag team (special forces unit under the command of the Israeli Air Force) that reached the window of our home. For the rest of the time, he lay for long hours between the safe room and the window, ready to protect us at any cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"\u05d8\u05e0\u05d9\u05d4<\/a>\"\u05d8\u05e0\u05d9\u05d4<\/p>\n

Tanya Reitzin. Her husband died by suicide: \u2018The psychological wound only deepened\u2019<\/p>\n

(Photo: Herzl Yosef)<\/p>\n

The family survived that day, but the emotional toll was devastating, Tanya said. \u201cMichael returned to his police post the very next day. He kept working day and night, taking part in operations against terrorists, locating terror cells and commanding his people, while dealing with the loss of friends, commanders and subordinates,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOutwardly, he remained the same strong, responsible and devoted person everyone knew, but inside, the psychological wound only deepened. On February 12, 2025, one year and four months after the massacre, Michael died by suicide in our home in Holit, part of which he had built with his own hands for us, the home where we raised our children, the home from which Michael made sure we got out alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Holit\"<\/a>\"Holit\"<\/p>\n

Still, several weeks ago, Tanya decided to return. \u201cOn June 9, 2026, after 976 days, I returned to Holit with my sons,\u201d she said. \u201cMany people asked me, \u2018Why rush?\u2019 \u2018Why not wait a little longer until everything is ready?\u2019 But for me, there was nothing to wait for. After everything we went through, after everything we lost and above all after almost three years of uncertainty, I knew that for us to look forward, to bring hope back into our lives, we needed to recover together in our home.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Eli Kabuli, who manages the kibbutz\u2019s juicer factory, the question was never whether to return, only when. He came back to Holit in December 2025. \u201cIf they had allowed me, I would have returned much earlier, even within a week,\u201d he said. \u201cFor me, there was never a question. This is my home. My late wife lived here, this house was built for her, and I don\u2019t see myself anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"\u05d0\u05dc\u05d9<\/a>\"\u05d0\u05dc\u05d9<\/p>\n

Eli Kabuli<\/p>\n

(Photo: Herzl Yosef)<\/p>\n

After the evacuation, Kabuli moved between Gvulot, central Israel, his sister\u2019s home, Ein Gedi, Sdei Avraham and Revivim. At the same time, he continued managing the kibbutz\u2019s juicer factory.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlready at the end of 2023, we returned to partial work, and from the beginning of 2024, we returned to full activity,\u201d he said. \u201cI continued working with existing customers, especially a major client from Germany who decided to significantly increase his orders out of a desire to help the kibbutz and the business hold on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alongside the return of veteran residents, Holit is also absorbing new families who chose to join the kibbutz during the most complex period in its history. Among them are Jude and Dudu Turgeman, who were accepted as members about a month ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe chose the kibbutz not simply as a place to live, but as a place to put down roots,\u201d they said. \u201cA place where our children can grow up with open space, community and mutual responsibility; a place that allows people to dream, create, fall and rise again. Even when life burns down what we have built, the kibbutz reminds us that a true home is not just walls, but people, land and the ability to begin again.\u201d<\/p>\n

As residents return, physical reconstruction is also moving ahead. The dining hall is being renewed, the dairy farm is expanding and being upgraded, cultural buildings are being renovated, and community centers, children\u2019s spaces, a gym, a ceramics studio, a community garden and additional public buildings are being rebuilt.<\/p>\n

All eyes are now on August, when, according to the kibbutz leadership, about half the community is expected to return after nearly three years of evacuation. <\/p>\n

\u201cHolit is not only a place to live; It is a home, a community and a way of life,\u201d said Yoav Boukay, Holit’s community manager. \u201cWe are deeply bound to this place, and it was clear to us that we would return, rebuild and continue to build and be built. We see the return to Holit as an inseparable part of the recovery of the entire Gaza border region, and of the entire country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For anyone entering Kibbutz Holit, about 1.2 kilometers from the Gaza border, the community still looks like a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-505005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}