While searching for the bodies of the missing in kibbutzim on the Gaza Perimeter, volunteers of ZAKA Tel Aviv located a menorah among the ruins in one of the ruined homes of Nir Oz:
Yisrael Chassid, a spokesman and volunteer for ZAKA Tel Aviv, joined the identification team at Shura base to identify bodies and excitedly described the menorah that was found. “This morning, we were tasked with the very important mission of going to one of the kibbutzim on the Perimeter, locating findings of bodies defined as missing. We come here and the teams say, we can’t and they go outside and show me the hannukiah (menorah),” he notes.
He added that “We simply said this exactly on the right month on the right day. We’re on the eve of the holiday of Hannukah, a holiday marking light, hope, and unity. To find a complete hannukiah among the ruins against the background of Israeli flags that weren’t burned here on the day of the massacre is something exciting to the point of tears and cannot be described. A hannukiah that survived the whole cruel and terrible massacre that the family endured here on the kibbutz. Without words!”