The Full Testimony
Testimony of
Assaf Bavli
On Saturday morning, Assaf Bavli, the General Manager of Kibbutz Magen, woke up to the Red Alarm sirens and an unusual noise of powerful missiles. After he locked himself in the safe room with his two young daughters, he heard a gunshot close to the house and realized that terrorists might have infiltrated the kibbutz. While holding the doorknob of the safe room door, he corresponded on WhatsApp with the members of the standby squad who called for reinforcements and, at the same time - with his ex-wife. After much deliberation, Assaf decided to go out and join the kibbutz members defending the kibbutz; he moved the girls to a neighbor's house, collected weapons, and joined his friends fighting in the field. For several hours, he shot at terrorists from a concrete position he took near the fence while firing grenades at him. It wasn't until noon that the IDF forces arrived. Later, Assaf and his friends continued their searches, walking with the soldiers between the kibbutz houses. While still processing the past event and the decisions he made during it, Assaf is working to restore the community and recognizes the situation that has arisen as an opportunity to strengthen the security of the surrounding settlements.
Place of the event:
Name:
Assaf Bavli
Organization:
None
Language:
Hebrew
Credit:
Date: 21.12.2023
Interview: Ora Maimon Pilewski
Photography: Daniel Gershon
Video Editing: Ora Maimon Pilewski
Content Editing: Anna Gutgarts
Translation: Shoshana Lavan
Other media
Deborah Mintz
“Another couple of hours we would have been dead anyways”- Deborah Mintz on 7.10 in Nirim
Tamar Livyatan
From Tamar Livyatan's testimony: "I have a daughter and granddaughter here, and I am not leaving without them."
Judith Bdolach
From Judith Bdolach's testimony: "What should have been a calm and quiet work-out, turned into a nightmare"
Amir Levkowiz
From Amir Levkowiz's testimony: ""They'll have to go through me, but they won't get in from here. And I just shoot.""
Jude Ida Turgeman
From Jude Ida Turgeman's testimony: "They realized that we might not live, they realized that their friends were being killed."
Etel Bennett
From Etel Bennett's testimony: "I said to my grandson: "I'm not Rambo. I'm not going to fight anyone with knives.""
Liat Ben- shimol
From Liat Ben- shimol's testimony: "The beautiful and pastoral moshav had turned into a war zone, a battlefield."
Rotem Israel
From Rotem Israel's testimony: "I saw the barrel of a rifle between the closet and the wall, as if death was looking into my face"
Meshi Foldes and
Sebastian Posdsamser
From MESHI FOLDES, Sebabstian Posdsamser's testimony: "I hear gunshots spinning by me from every direction."
Danny Garkovitch
From Danny Garkovitch's testimony: " I performed the tearing mourning ritual in my heart a long time ago."
Regina Solomon
From Regina Solomon's testimony: "“Nobody understands what’s going on; firing, loud noise and many missiles.”"
