The story of Idan Berman, a resident of Kibbutz Kfar Aza begins on Saturday October 7th. The sounds of the alarm woke him up, but he never imagined what awaited him later that day.
In the interview with Srugim/JFeed, Idan tells about the fear that morning, about his brothers Gali and Ziv, residents of the youth neighborhood in the kibbutz, who were kidnapped into Gaza. The meeting with him was outside the house of his brother Gali, who Idan hopes will soon be able to reunite with him again together with Ziv.
Many hours without food and water
Idan recounts the terrifying moments of that morning on October 7: "I was in my apartment, which is a little far from here, but inside the kibbutz, hours of confusion and helplessness, it is unknown whether they will open the door or try to open the protected space, whether it is possible to go to the bathroom, drink water or talk on the phone. Many hours without eating or drinking."
According to him, "In the WhatsApp groups at the same time, there were hundreds of messages of 'in my home', 'in their home.' The younger generation suffered almost the biggest blow. I did not physically see terrorists, but I heard Arabic outside the windows. I was alone, not digesting the situation, remaining closed in the protected space in silence while messaging on WhatsApp, trying to absorb and understand what is happening, everything is confused."
He continues to describe the difficult moments. "I was rescued the next day at noon. An IDF force arrived, they took us out with armored vehicles, I was one of the last to be rescued. A few more families came after me. Everything around is either burned or destroyed, under fire, unpleasant feelings."
"We saw that the Red Cross, to put it mildly, does nothing"
That morning he did not just end up trying to escape from the inferno. Not far from his house lived his two twin brothers Ziv and Gali. Idan tells about those moments when he tried to locate them. "We had contact with them until around 10:30 until the electricity went out and the reception ended and the only thing we heard was after 11 days when we were told that they were kidnapped."
Idan describes his 26-year-old brothers as the best of their age, "enjoying life, happy most of the day, I'm sure they are happy in their dreams too", he hopes. According to Idan, his brothers are people who help, friends always come to visit. "The neighborhood here is a hub for friends, they sit down together in the evening and at noon. It's hard now to think that they're not here to have this fun with them."
Have you spoken to international officials?
"Many families turn to every direction they can to take action, we are in the same place and situation. We will meet whoever we can meet, we saw that the Red Cross, to put it mildly, does nothing. My brother was in a delegation to the United Nations and we applied pressure, wherever we can go and apply pressure for my brothers and the other abductees to be released we will do it."