“When minutes count, the army is only hours away”

In Heroic Battle, 15 People Saved Kibbutz Kerem Shalom From Hamas Massacre.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Although most of the Kibbutzim in the western Negev were woefully unprepared for a mass Hamas attack and paid a heavy price in civilian casualties, there was one Kibbutz where Hamas did not succeed in conquering the Kibbutz, did not take captives and did not cause any civilian casualties.

The kibbutz is situated at the southwestern tip of Israel, near the border with Gaza and Egypt. A few years ago, the kibbutz nearly disbanded due to lack of people willing to live in the parched, arid zone with few employment opportunities. However a Garin Torani (nucleus of Bnei Torah) arrived a few years ago to strengthen the kibbutz and to build their lives there in pioneering fashion. The young religious families energized the kibbutz and on Simchas Torah all the residents both religious and secular celebrated in the shul with many guests from all over the country.

At one point, Moshe Yedidia Raziel stood in the middle of the circle and began singing Am Yisrael Chai as everyone jumped up and down in unison. At the end of the Hakafos everyone went back to eat the festive meal.

At 6:30 A.M they awoke to sirens around the Kibbutz and the defenders, consisting of nine local residents with army training (former IDF soldiers) and six soldiers, prepared for the invasion. Amichai Yisrael Vitzan told his wife that “this is what we have been training for.” The small force deployed around the kibbutz in different places. Tens of terrorists infiltrated the kibbutz and the force engaged them in fierce fighting.

Kerem Shalom’s 35 homes became a battlefield. In the first hours the force eliminated many of the terrorists and for 6 hours continued the battle alone. In on of the shootouts, the wife of Moshe Yedidia Raziel heard heavy shooting and then Yedidia shouted: “We eliminated them”.

Amichai was calm and told his wife on Whatsapp to make the children feel good as today is Simchas Torah. This was the last she heard from him. A few hours after the fighting started, a terrorist surprised Amichai Yisrael and Moshe Yedidia from behind and murdered both of them. Amichai (33) left five children and Moshe (31) left three children. Both were friends from the same community (Psagot), both were studying social work in Ashkelon and both came to help the struggling kibbutz. It was their heroic struggle which saved the kibbutz members from the fate of neighboring communities. All of the families were saved (two other members of the fighting group were injured) and nobody was taken captive.

The army arrived only at 1 PM after the group had fought off Hamas for six hours.