Knesset Chairman Amir Ohana conducted a joint tour today (Monday) with the President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Michał Szczerba (Poland), and the Secretary-General of the organization, Ruxandra Popa (Romania), in Kibbutz Kfar Aza and the Tzrifin camp. The head of the Knesset delegation to NATO, Knesset Member Boaz Bismuth, also participated in the tour.
The organization's leaders, who came to visit Israel as a show of solidarity, were deeply moved by the harsh scenes and the thousands of military equipment displayed before them at the military base, with the sounds of the ongoing fighting in the background. President Michał Szczerba told Ohana that he intends to act in parliaments around the world for the release of the captives, "including 30 children and a Polish citizen, Alex Danzig, a 74-year-old Holocaust researcher who has been living in Israel for 40 years and was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz."
Szczerba further added, "I want to express our full solidarity with Israel. I will report to the parliamentary assembly of NATO, which consists of 31 parliamentarians, what I have seen here with my own eyes. A kibbutz, in my opinion, is a paradise on earth. People living together, sharing the same values like one family. I was saddened to hear that even the leader of this community, Ofir Libstein, was killed. We must fight terrorism with all the means at our disposal."
Ohana thanked his guest and said, "We need all the international assistance to bring back our kidnapped citizens from the kibbutzim and from the party who are being held in Gaza. Among them are babies, elderly, and Holocaust survivors. We need international pressure to return them to their families."
"We also need your support now, while we are fighting, and not only when we are being attacked," added Ohana. "This is not just Israel's private struggle with Hamas. This is a fight of the forces of light against the forces of darkness. Of the free world against the fundamentalist forces of Islam that we witnessed committing atrocities here a month ago."
During the tour, they spoke with Shimon Elkabetz and his family, whose daughter Sivan, may she rest in peace, was murdered in Kfar Aza by the perpetrators of the atrocity. Also present in the meeting was Avi Chasidim, the father of Naor Chasidim, may he rest in peace, who was Sivan's partner and was murdered alongside her. The two leaders also met with Shahar and Eyelet, long-time residents of Kfar Aza, who hid and survived the massacre but decided to return to their home. Shahar, aged 62, said, "We need to return and rebuild the kibbutz. Even the birds have returned to fly here today."
The President and the Secretary-General also met with the Chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, MK Yuli Edelstein, and they are expected to meet with the head of the Knesset's Parliamentary Friendship Group with Poland, MK Amit Halevi.
