Terror, fear, and psychological stress – Israelis living on the Gaza border often have a difficult time. One of them, Yankele, lost a friend and temporarily his health to rocket attacks, but not his optimism.
When Yankele told me his story, I was completely amazed. I thought I already knew so much about him. Yankele is one of my very special friends in Israel, and that's not just because of the lentil soup he always makes for me. This friendship is one of the most precious things I've experienced in this country, and I wouldn't want to be without it.
How it all began
Avishai, Yankele's son, stayed with my family in 2012 as part of the Christians Standing with Israel terror victim aid program, along with his friend Shai. When he said goodbye after his stay in Germany, it was clear that we would soon visit him at Kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel. We wanted to meet his entire family.
The first time I saw Yankele, however, was on a photo magnet on his refrigerator in his kitchen, while he was vacationing with his family in Eilat and I was staying at his house. And that pretty much sums up what he's like. Even though he didn't know me, he let me stay in his house for several days. It was my first time living so close to the Gaza Strip. The border is only about two kilometers away. I spent my nights in the shelter. It was incomprehensible to me that life in this idyllic spot could turn into hell in a matter of seconds.
Yankele has lived here since 1977, together with his wife Orith. When they moved here, the area was still peaceful. Like many Israelis, they went to the market in Gaza to shop. They also had their bicycles repaired cheaply in the Gaza Strip.
Everything changed after Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip
But the situation changed as the then Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat gained more and more power. Palestinian terrorism intensified, there were suicide bombings, and in 1987 the first so-called Palestinian Intifada broke out. In the early 1990s, Israel erected a security fence along the border with the Gaza Strip. For Jews, visits to the coastal strip had long since become too dangerous.
For more than 40 years, Yankele and his family have lived on the border with the Gaza Strip. This is home to his four children. When the radical Islamist group Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007, following Israel's unilateral withdrawal, southern Israel became the target of tens of thousands of Palestinian rocket attacks. When the rocket fire began, Yankele and his family didn't believe they could be hit. Their kibbutz seemed too small and insignificant. Hamas's targets were the larger cities like Sderot, Ashkelon, and Ashdod. Until that Friday evening in May 2008.
Yankele was standing in the garden with his friend and neighbor, Jimmy. They were saying goodbye for the beginning of Shabbat, ready to celebrate with their families at home. The few seconds after the rocket alarm weren't enough time to seek shelter. There were no bomb shelters back then. That moment, when Jimmy was hit directly by a rocket, is etched deep into Yankele's soul. Even today, he can still see the images and smell the scent of that last Shabbat Shalom they had just wished each other. Jimmy was the kibbutz's crack shot hero. The children loved him. He was a skydiver and a European champion in precision landing. Now it had happened to him!
A miracle: Daughter Schir survives rocket attack
During a rocket attack in December 2008, Yankele's family home was hit. A stone was dislodged from the house and, due to the force of the explosion, hurled through the roof and directly onto the bed of her eleven-year-old daughter, Shir. Miraculously, the girl was saved: Shir had turned over in bed that night and was sleeping with her head at the foot of the bed. The stone was lying at the head of the bed. In 2012, her daughter Lital's house was hit, and she and her three daughters barely managed to escape to a bomb shelter. During the Gaza War in 2014, the small apartment where Shir was living was damaged. Living with trauma
In 2016, it all became too much. It happened so suddenly. Yankele never thought it could happen to him. But the numerous traumatic events led to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For six months, Yankele could barely get out of bed. He lost his job. He lost a lot of money. He (almost) lost all hope. Yankele had a small zoo of his own. He helped children overcome their fears through interaction with animals. He was well-known throughout much of Israel and also trained and taught therapists how to work with animals. Now he could no longer care for his animals and they all had to be sold, which was an immense additional pain for him.
But Yankele managed to overcome the trauma. And he was a great support to his daughter Lital when she later suffered a year and a half of PTSD and was no longer able to care for her children. Now everyone is doing well again. Yankele and Orith enjoy spending time with their four children and seven grandchildren. Yankele hasn't lost his optimism. He still loves life and welcomes us into his home, even when we arrive with a tour bus full of tourists.
"Shema Yisrael" – "Hear, O Israel"
Perhaps one of my most moving moments in Israel was when Yankele gave me a necklace with the Shema Yisrael – the prayer "Hear, O Israel." It's a family heirloom passed down through generations. Orith had received it from her mother-in-law but had never worn it. She wanted me to have it, even though she has three daughters of her own. For me, it was like being welcomed into this family. For her, it's a privilege that I wear it. I could hardly believe it. The Shema Yisrael expresses the deepest identity of the Jewish people. Every observant Jew prays it three times a day: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!" (Deuteronomy 6:4).
The author: As a CSI employee in the "Humanitarian Services" team, Delly Hezel maintains close contacts with those responsible for and affected by our aid projects in Israel.
This article first appeared in our newspaper "Israelaktuell," issue 126. You can order the newspaper free of charge here: https://csi-aktuell.de/israelaktuell. We would also be happy to send you several copies for distribution.
