Book Review: Gates of Gaza and How They Were Forced Open
And the story of one family waiting for murder or rescue, helplessly, on October 7.
Editor’s Note:
Quite intentionally, we have not published any book reviews before today. It has been a conscious decision to dip cautiously into “culture”, broadly defined. State of Tel Aviv has published the odd discussion of a film, or photo journalism, but always in the context of a larger, political framework.
Today, we break that unwritten rule and are publishing two book reviews regarding work that we judge to be of particular importance. I have reviewed Gates of Gaza, by Israeli journalist, Amir Tibon. A resident of one of the kibbutzim attacked on October 7 by Hamas, Tibon and his family were rescued, miraculously. His first-hand account of that day and the months since is riveting, heart rending and required reading for anyone wanting understand what it meant to be in that time and place. This is as intimate a rendering as is possible. And he also zooms out to give us historical context and perspective.
The second review (which will come in a separate email) is written by regular State of Tel Aviv contributor, Maayan Hoffman. Maayan reviews Seth Frantzman’s very raw account of being in the midst of battle in those early hours of October 7, and the ensuing days and weeks. She brings a unique perspective to that day. When October 7 erupted, Maayan was one of the few people desperately trying to see through the thick fog. It was Frantzman who became her lodestar on that morning.
Full disclosure: Maayan is a friend of Frantzman’s and I am a friend of Tibon’s. For technical reasons that I really do not understand we are sending each review in a separate post/email. My review of Amir Tibon’s book drops first. Immediately after is Maayan Hoffman’s review of Seth Frantzman’s book.
Gates of Gaza: How They Were Forced Open on October 7
Inside and outside the safe room of one family on Kibbutz Nahal Oz
The Gates of Gaza
By: Amir Tibon
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company in the U.S. and Canada
Scribe in the U.K. and Australia.
329 pages.
Available in bookstores in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Australia, and online as an e-book or audiobook.
Editor’s Note: The cover photograph on Gates of Gaza is of the kitchen of Varda Goldstein from Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Her son, Nadav, and granddaughter, Yam, were murdered by Hamas terrorists in their home on the Kibbutz on October 7, in front of the mother and wife, Chen Almog-Goldstein. Also witnessing these murders were the three additional children of Chen and Nadav - Agam, 17, Tal and Gal, 10-year-old twins. Chen, Agam, Tal and Gal were held hostage by Hamas in Gaza and released on November 26, 2023.
The cover designer at publisher Little Brown, Lucy Kim, reviewed hundreds of photographs from October 7, 2023. She selected the image of Varda’s kitchen because it portrays - in a quiet but chilling way - what happened. Author Amir Tibon is grateful that she gave permission to use this devastating image, which was photographed by Eyal Bartov.
On October 7, 2023, I was in Toronto, my hometown, wrapping up my extended annual summer holiday. My brother woke me at 7:30 am EST, which was 2:30 pm in Israel, where the Hamas attack was well advanced. By that time, virtually all 251 people taken hostage by Hamas had been captured, brutally. Most of the 1,200 civilians and soldiers who were slaughtered were already dead.
“Israel is at war”, he said.
“What? How can that be? I checked last night (as I do every night) before going to sleep and there were a few random rockets shot at the kibbutzim along the Gaza border. What do you mean?”
And so began my immersion in the fog of war, a few hours later than most. After fifteen minutes of scrolling and watching and reading I began to understand the enormity of the attack. And the first thing I thought of was my friend, Amir Tibon, who lived on Kibbutz Nahal Oz with his wife and two very young daughters.
Nahal Oz was under attack. I did not want to bother Amir, assuming that he was either safe or being terrorized. Regrettably, it was the latter. I learned this from his mother, Gali, to whom I sent a WhatsApp message, asking if he and his family were safe.
Me: Hi Gali. Are Amir Miri and the girls safe?”
Gali: No.
Me: Have you heard from them? I’m in Toronto. Just woke up to this Hell.
Gali, writing in Hebrew: Amir and Miri are in the safe room with the girls. There are terrorists in their neighborhood on the kibbutz and there is no military. Noam (Amir’s father) traveled an hour ago with soldiers to Nahal Oz. I took wounded people to the hospital in Ashdod and returned to Sderot. There are dozens of dead people on the roads.
I thanked her for the update and waited. I was numb. You never expect it to be someone you know. And so many corpses? This was bad. Really bad. Hamas seemed to be everywhere. The army and government were invisible.
A half hour later Gali Tibon wrote to me that Amir and his family were fine. I was beyond relieved to hear that news.
Lucky doesn’t begin to describe it.
Between the lines of my very distilled synopsis above is the story of how General (Ret.) Noam Tibon, with his wife Gali, undertook the most dangerous and critical mission of their lives; to save their family. Their son, Amir, his wife, Miri and their two little girls were cowering in a dark safe room, without water, food or any connection to the world beyond, while Hamas madmen savaged their world.
Kibbutz Nahal Oz was established in 1951 by a small group of young idealists and was and remains the closest kibbutz to the 1949 armistice line with the Gaza Strip (which was then Egypt). Just two kilometers separate the kibbutz from its hostile enemy. In the past and for decades since, these outposts were seen to be not only civilian communities but also critical for securing Israel’s borders. because they required protection from constant threats and attacks. And that, of course, necessitated a military presence.
In addition to the story of the carnage on his kibbutz, Tibon also tells of the invasion and destruction of the nearby Nahal Oz military base, in which many young soldiers fought heroically on October 7. These tragedies are very much twins, tangled together, but unraveled expertly by Tibon.
(Also, see Notes below this review for additional State of Tel Aviv coverage that you may find of interest relating to Kibbutz Nahal Oz and the IDF base.)
Tibon is a skilled writer but, perhaps more importantly, he is a very gifted interpreter. Of nuance. And hammer blows. Of symmetries and discord, past and present.
The story of Nahal Oz is, in many ways, the story of Israel. Tibon toggles back and forth, masterfully, between the present and the past, teasing out the complex politics and history of his kibbutz and the region. He recreates the suspense of October 7; hearing the Hamasniks shooting their AK 47’s wildly, yelling “Allahu Akhbar”, shooting RPGs, lobbing grenades. Trying, repeatedly, to break into his home. The reader is very much in the room with him. Waiting. For a brutal death or miraculous deliverance.
Amir knew his parents were trying to get to him but he had no idea of the hellish conditions they pushed through; quite literal fire and brimstone, burning cars and roads littered with bodies. As he waited for Noam and Gali to rescue his family, he was unaware that they had decided to split up in the midst of this inferno, so that each of them could accomplish critical life-saving tasks – taking care of others as well as their own. It is a story of indescribable will, courage and audacity. In short, it is the story of modern Israel.
At the funeral of Ro’i Rothberg in late April,1956, the top Commander in the IDF at the time - Moshe Dayan (who held so many high military and civilian political offices throughout his career) delivered the eulogy, which resonates today. Perhaps even more powerfully.
Below, is a short excerpt:
Roi Rotberg, the thin blond lad who left Tel Aviv in order to build his home alongside the gates of Gaza, to serve as our wall. Ro’i — the light in his heart blinded his eyes and he saw not the flash of the blade. The longing for peace deafened his ears and he heard not the sound of the coiled murderers. The gates of Gaza were too heavy for his shoulders, and they crushed him.
Ro’i had been among the early pioneers who established Kibbutz Nahal Oz, plowed its arid, rocky fields into verdant crops. He was also responsible for the kibbutz’s security in those days. Cross-border raids from the Gaza Strip were not uncommon.
One morning in April 1956, as the kibbutz was preparing for the wedding of four couples that evening, Ro’i Rothberg learned that there may have been a terrorist infiltration in the fields. He got on his horse and headed out to assess the situation. Rothberg was ambushed by terrorists who murdered and mutilated him and then took his body back to Gaza. Due to the assistance of UN officials, Rothberg’s remains were repatriated. The following day, he was buried, leaving a young wife and son. Moshe Dayan was already at the kibbutz, planning to attend the wedding party. Instead, he delivered a eulogy for Rothberg.
On Saturday, October 7, 2023, Nahal Oz was planning to celebrate 70 years since its founding. The day-long holiday and commemorative party turned into a bloodbath, creating an unwelcome symmetry with April, 1956.
On October 7, 38-year-old Ilan Fiorentino, the head of the Kibbutz Nahal Oz security team, left his wife and three young daughters in their safe room of the family home. Ilan was murdered while holding off dozens of terrorists, on his own; a gift that allowed so many families to rush to their safe rooms.
To this day, no member of the Israeli government coalition has paid a call on the bereaved family of Ilan Fiorentino.
Almost 60 years after the murder of Ro’i Rothberg, in 2014, another thin, blond lad left Tel Aviv in order to build his home alongside the gates of Gaza.
Amir Tibon and his then girlfriend Miri, a young, hip, two-career couple, living the dream in Tel Aviv, decided to uproot and make Nahal Oz their home. It was shortly after that momentous move that I first met Tibon, when I was serving as Canada’s Ambassador to Israel. In 2015. He was young. Bright. Very personable. He has a cheerful demeanor. Many journalists feel they have to affect doom and gloom to be taken seriously. Not Amir Tibon.
We spoke for an hour or so. His views were unanchored in any particular orthodoxy. In Israel that is refreshing.
I remember – actually, he reminded me recently – that I asked him at that first meeting where he lived. Israel is a very small country. Where one is placed, geographically, signals so much.
I did not expect the response.
“I live in Nahal Oz.”
Like so many people in Israel and abroad, I was very familiar with this kibbutz, by name and reputation only. In the waning days of the Hamas war in the summer of 2014, a four-year-old boy, Daniel Tragerman, was hit by a mortar and died.
At the end of August, 2014, after several cease-fires had been broken by Hamas, it seemed that the conflict was finally winding down. The IDF advised residents of the area that it was safe to return to their border homes. The Tragerman family did just that. They went home to Nahal Oz.
Shortly after their return, in yet another cease-fire breach, a Hamas mortar exploded just outside the Tragerman home. The little boy froze in terror, according to his mother. He was killed instantly. The family left the kibbutz, understandably shattered.
Approximately 20% of the kibbutz population left permanently after that brutal blow.
What I did not know was that in the months following this tragedy, many people, like Amir and Miri, were simultaneously drawn to live there; by a sense of duty, adventure and falling in love with the place. Nahal Oz, like so many of the communities in the area bordering and close to the Gaza Strip, was tranquil. Beautiful. It was a strong community where all contributed to the well-being of the whole. There is something magical about these small, agriculture-based communities that is very seductive. Amir, Miri and others whose stories he tells answered the call.
From just after 6:29 am on Saturday, October 7, 2023, until late in the afternoon, Amir and Miri Tibon and their daughters waited. In the dark. Hearing madmen. For hours. Where was the army? Where were his parents? Early on they had some cellular power and information but as the hours passed everything was drained. Tibon’s unraveling of that day, in which he and his family lived lifetimes, is riveting and so raw.
Since October 7, the Tibon family has lived on a beautiful kibbutz in the north of the country with most of the displaced members of Nahal Oz. In addition to finding a way to “carry on”, the trauma suffered – even by the most fortunate, like the Tibons – is intense. Tibon’s thoughts, expressed in “X” posts, are very revealing. He often comments on how casual interactions – like running into a neighbor at the grocery store – are so challenging. Especially when that neighbour witnessed the murder of her young daughter. And saw her husband dragged, in shock, into the Gaza Strip. “Don’t be a hero,” were her last words to him. Tzachi Idan has since turned 50 in Hamas captivity. His wife and three surviving children wait.
In Gates of Gaza there is no beginning, middle and end. We are left with an unending, agonizing churn. And a glimpse into the impossible choices faced on that dark day, by so many.
At times, it feels as if we are standing still.
About the author
Amir Tibon is an award-winning diplomatic correspondent for Haaretz, and previously served as the paper’s correspondent in Washington, D.C. He is the co-author (with Grant Rumley) of The Last Palestinian: The Rise and Reign of Mahmoud Abbas, the first-ever biography of the leader of the Palestinian Authority. Amir, his wife, and their two young daughters were evacuated from their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz after the October 7 attack, and are currently living in temporary housing in north-central Israel.
Additional Notes:
State of Tel Aviv has covered various aspects of the story of Amir Tibon and his kibbutz as well as the Hamas invasion of the nearby army base and the devastation wrought there. Below, we set out they key videos and articles that are relevant and may be of interest. Please note that our archive is usually available to paying subscribers only. We are making these additional resources available to all subscribers for one week from today:
Video testimony of Amir Tibon, published November 2, 2023.
Article based on interview with Eyal Eshel, father of Murdered female soldier, Roni Eshel: The Heroism of Roni Eshel: What Really Happened at Nahal Oz IDF Base, October 7th
Article with audio clips of murdered female soldier, Roni Eshel, in the moments before Hamas invaded the Nahal Oz IDF base. "Confirm receipt!": A Soldier’s Unanswered Pleas on October 7th”
Podcast: Focus on Kibbutz Nahal Oz. One Year Later. In conversation with Amir Tibon, Adam Ma’anit and Heidi Bachram
