Steinmeier looks into Israel's "wounded soul"

Steinmeier looks into Israel's "wounded soul"

The President of the Swiss Confederation climbs over rubble and ashes in Kibbutz Be'eri, visits destroyed houses and hears reports of murder and terror. He also meets survivors of the Hamas massacre on October 7. Will they ever return here?

On the morning of October 7, the windows in Ziva Jelin's house vibrated. She woke her son. She heard the warning signal and suspected that this was not a normal alarm, not a rocket attack, as was often the case. The family retreated to the shelter that every house here has. Outside, she heard the vehicles with which the attackers were ramming their way into the area, gunshots, explosions, shouts in Arabic. Ziva Jelin received a call on her cell phone asking her to stay in the shelter. "We didn't understand what was actually happening for a long time," she says.

Ziva Jelin is 61 years old and was born in Kibbutz Be'eri. She lived in one of the smaller, older houses to the left of the entrance gate. The attackers mainly moved to the right, to the newer, larger buildings. And a neighbor of hers, a soldier, was at home on that Shabbat day. With his gun, he shot at everything that moved towards the houses, says Ziva Jelin. "We were lucky."

High security level despite ceasefire

Be'eri, the kibbutz that German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is visiting this Monday, is almost synonymous with the terror of October 7. It is not far from the border with Gaza and was one of the first Israeli settlements to be attacked by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Palestinian civilians on that Saturday morning. According to Israeli reports, 130 of the approximately 1,300 residents were killed and more than 50 abducted. Many houses have been destroyed, often completely burnt out. The Israeli army later evacuated the kibbutz and the remaining residents are now living in emergency shelters, most of them in a town on the Dead Sea, including Ziva Yelin.

It is the 52nd day since the attack and the fourth day of a ceasefire between the Israeli army and Hamas. Nevertheless, security precautions are high for Steinmeier's visit. The Federal President and his wife Elke Büdenbender are wearing protective vests. The exact destination could not be disclosed in advance and the delegation receives several briefings on the precautionary measures.

Steinmeier has been to Israel many times - the circumstances have never been so dramatic

Ziva Jelin has already been to her house several times to fetch utensils. She is a painter, and for more than 30 years she ran the gallery in Be'eri, which is known far beyond the borders of the kibbutz. Modern art, a place of encounter. On this day, she meets Steinmeier, who has come to Be'eri with his wife and accompanied by Israeli President Izchak Herzog. They stand in front of the ruins of the completely destroyed gallery.

Steinmeier's visit to Israel had been planned for a long time. The plan was actually to celebrate 75 years of Israel. But then came October 7. It is Steinmeier's fourth visit to Israel as Federal President. He has been here more than 20 times in total, mostly as Foreign Minister. He also visited the Gaza Strip once. But never before have the circumstances surrounding a trip to Israel been so dramatic. He had come to show solidarity not only with Israel, which had been the victim of the attack, but also with Israel, "which is fighting back". The Federal President wants to send a signal against growing doubts about Israel's conduct of the war, without ignoring the suffering of the Palestinian civilian population. A fine line.

On Sunday, Steinmeier met relatives of hostages with German citizenship in Jerusalem. Eight of them have now been released, four women and four children. Around 15 are still in the hands of their kidnappers. It is uncertain whether all of them are still alive. It is particularly difficult to free hostages in the hands of the Islamic Jihad because contacts with this terrorist group can almost only exist via Iran.

Tour of the Be'eri kibbutz. Two Israeli female soldiers lead the German visitors into the house of the Kipnis couple, both pensioners. They lived here with their Filipino caretaker. Lilach Kipnis, a former social worker, wrote books for children who suffered from trauma due to the constant fear of rocket attacks. You walk through this house over rubble and dirt. It smells of smoke, black smears everywhere, traces of blood smudged in one room. The Kipnis and their nurse were brutally murdered here. 80 percent of the bodies found in Be'eri showed signs of torture, according to the Israeli soldiers.

Only the teeth of some of the dead remained

A few meters further on, some women are standing in front of a house, former residents. They are apparently sorting out the remains of their furniture. Another woman joins them and is embraced. The people still look dazed.

Another destroyed house. Vivian Silver, a Canadian Jew who moved to Israel a few years ago, used to live here. Silver saw herself as a peace activist, she looked after sick children in the Gaza Strip and tried to get them medical help. According to the Israeli soldiers, she traveled to the border crossings to the Gaza Strip about once a week.

Silver went missing after October 7. It was not until weeks later that her remains were discovered in her burnt-out house and the woman identified. According to the Israeli soldiers, they often only find teeth from the dead. Vivian Silver was declared dead on November 11.

Some residents of Be'eri had weapons, some fought back. Later, the army came to help, late, very late. She was not surprised, says a woman from the kibbutz. The border region on the Gaza Strip had been deliberately neglected by the government because it had deployed more soldiers to protect the settlers in the occupied West Bank. The bodies of around 200 terrorists were later found in Kibbutz Be'eri, says one of the Israeli soldiers. This, she says, shows how many attackers there must have been in total.

"Witness to how deeply Israel's soul has been wounded"

Frank-Walter Steinmeier was deeply impressed after the visit. People in Germany had watched television and read reports, says the Federal President. But seeing the destruction for yourself was something else. The kibbutzim, mostly cooperatively organized settlements that live primarily from agriculture and were often founded by European Jews, are "part of the soul of Israel", says Steinmeier. "Being here means witnessing how deeply the soul of Israel has been wounded."

Germany intends to support the reconstruction of the gallery and a meeting center with seven million euros. Steinmeier will act as patron together with President Izchak Herzog. If the Kibbutz Be'eri is rebuilt.

Sofie Berzon MacKie recently took over the gallery from Ziva Jelin. She also lived in Be'eri with her three children until the Hamas attack. They all survived, but what they saw, says MacKie, was "the worst thing you can experience without dying". She and her children are undergoing therapeutic treatment. Whether they move back to Be'eri again is something they want to decide as a family. But the memories would stay with them anyway "for the rest of our lives".

No return as long as Hamas threatens the kibbutz

Under no circumstances, says MacKie, will they return to the kibbutz as long as Hamas still exists and continues to threaten the kibbutz. A life with rocket alarms, shelters and evacuations, as was normal in recent years, "I can no longer expect that of my children after everything that has happened".

Ziva Jelin, the painter, says she wants to return to Be'eri. She was born here. "I don't feel comfortable anywhere else." She believes that the Israeli army's war against Hamas is inevitable. "We didn't want this war, but we have to do it." Some of the hostages from Be'eri have since been released. But her brother's 13-year-old granddaughter is still in the hands of the terrorists.

Of course, Ziva Jelin also hears about the children who die in the Gaza Strip, lose their parents or are on the run. But, she freely admits, she always thinks first of what has happened to the children here in Be'eri and in other places in Israel.

1. Despite the ceasefire, security measures remain high during President Steinmeier's visit to Be'eri, a kibbutz near the Gaza border, where over 130 residents were killed and many more abducted during a Hamas attack on October 7.
2. During his meeting with Ziva Jelin, a survivor of the Hamas massacre in Kibbutz Be'eri, Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed his solidarity and support for Israel, acknowledging that the circumstances surrounding his visit to Israel are the most dramatic he has ever encountered.
3. Steinmeier also met with relatives of German hostages held by Islamic Jihad in Jerusalem, where eight have been released and fourteen remain captive, raising concerns about their safety and potential survival.

Source: www.ntv.de