The black morning when bloodthirsty Hamas terrorists attacked the party in Re'im claimed the lives of 260 Israeli citizens, with many taken captive and some still missing.
Dor Kapah was there as a masseuse and was accompanied by his girlfriend Lali. In a special interview, Dor tells about the moments of horror he experienced with Lali and his friends at the party, escaping to the plantations, the sights they were exposed to in Be'eri and the friend with whom he lost contact.
"It all began at 6 in the morning. We saw the rocket launches from Gaza to Israel, chaos erupted within the party, and there was a commotion. They asked everyone to evacuate, and the security personnel started directing everyone out of the premises," Dor began to recount his story. He continued, "I have a jeep, and I started loading it because I had a massage position there. My girlfriend helped me load things while sirens and missiles were flying above our heads. We remained inside the compound for about 40 minutes until Hamas militants began approaching the party, and we could hear the gunfire getting closer."
50 terrorists opened fire inside the party
At this point, he decided it was time to leave the place: "At that moment, I tell my girlfriend and Gilad, 'Get in the jeep, and we're getting out of here.' We start driving in the direction everyone is running. We navigate through all the tents, chairs, and side tables, escaping towards the parking lot outside. I see my friend running towards my car, and I load him into it. We drive towards the party's exit, and I see a group of about 50 militants entering the party and opening fire."
Dor continued to describe their escape, saying, "I'm maneuvering with the car. At the far end of the parking lot, we see our friend Alex Lubnov, and we also load him onto the front seat, with my girlfriend sitting halfway on him and halfway in the air. We start driving into the area, and Alex guides us through the field towards the direction of Gaza. We spot military jeep antennas, reach it, and see that its engine is running while it's connected with the front wheel."
"The doors are open, and I see an M16 rifle in the front seat of the car. I take it, try to operate it, but it's jammed, no magazines, just three bullets on the driver's seat and another small bag full of M16 bullets. I load all of it into the car. I see a group of Hamas militants; Lali shouts to me, 'They're terrorists!' I get into the car, and we drive away, escaping into the fields, navigating there. We spot an electric pole. Alex gets out of the car to talk to his wife. Ohad, the other guy who came with me from the parking lot, gets out to catch his breath. As they get out of the car, a Hamas militant jumps on us from behind. Lali tells me 'Drive,' and then we drive into the fields, hiding there, turning the engine on and off for about 40 minutes."
"Don't drive where birds are coming out of the trees"
While hiding, the situation takes a turn. "Alex and Ohad ran into the fields, and since then, we lost contact with Alex; we can't find him, and we don't know where he is. From there, we enter the fields, hide, and then head towards Be'eri. Behind the kibbutz, a group of eight motorcycles and jeeps pass by. They spot us, approach from ahead, and I keep driving. I see three motorcycles coming toward me. While navigating, Lali talks to the police officer and explains the entire situation. She guides me and says the sentence, 'Don't drive where birds are coming out of the trees,' and then we understood that where the birds are flying out from, there's shooting."
"Lali gave me this information, and from there, we continued to navigate. A group of three motorcycles approaches me, and an Arab man looks at me in the eyes, and I look back. I raise my head, and then he realizes my girlfriend and starts shouting 'a Jew' and opens fire on the car. He chases us, and I kick up a cloud of dust into the air."
Improvised Operations Room in the middle of hell
Dor with his occupants in the car continues driving towards Be'eri. "Meanwhile behind us two vehicles with submachine guns are shooting at us, we reach the main road towards Be'eri, on the main road we see a lot of smashed cars, bodies on the floor, without heads and hands, parts everywhere, blown brains, horrors, it's really hard for me to describe it. We drove towards Alumim at about 9 in the morning, I see a squad of Hamasniks sitting on the axis and blocking the road towards Ofakim. Someone is waiting for me with an RPG, he launches at me and then I cut into a ditch on the side, driving on a dirt road towards Alumim, someone with a Kalashnikov comes out.
"I step on the brakes and turn in the direction of Be'eri, the policeman tells me to go there because there are forces there. We arrive at the Kibbutz. The gate is sprayed, a blue car with a dead ultra-Orthodox guy on the floor, holy books and psalms lying next to him, and we have no forces. We only hear shouts in Arabic and shooting at the houses. I shift into reverse, we go up to a bicycle shop that is outside the settlement of Be'eri. At this time we stop there and look for an open door, Lali finds one, and we go into a small toilet cubicle near a factory store and there we hide for six hours while Lali holds the head of the friend after he received a shrapnel."
While they were in hiding, Lali was managing an improvised operations room with the police, with parents and a friend guiding the security forces toward them. "We were there for about six hours, and no one arrived. The building we were hiding in, which was a bicycle shop, served as a HAMAS firing point, and we heard them firing. They tried to steal my jeep but failed. Two soldiers arrived. We could hear an ongoing battle, and then I heard them speaking in military language, and I understood that they were IDF forces. Lali told me not to open the door until they confirm our identities. I told her it's time to come out; there are IDF soldiers here."
After they identified them as soldiers, they came out of their hiding place. "The soldiers talked to me, and I told them I have the jammed weapon in the car that I took from the military jeep. They tried to help me operate it, but it was stuck. A resident of Be'eri arrived there and began arranging the bodies of terrorists and Jews, each group separately. Then, another group of three police officers and a white van arrived in the area."
"We thought they were terrorists," Dor explains, and continues, "They identified themselves as police to us. I returned the military weapon to them, searched for another weapon among the terrorists, found a knife, and took it. We loaded a guy who was still alive, just barely, onto the car. I loaded all of them onto the vehicle, and they directed us to Alumim. They told us to turn on four blinkers, honk your horn as much as possible, and hurry to Alumim, where there are forces."
After they arrived at the location, they directed the injured to the hospitals, and Dor stayed with Lali in the area until they were rescued. "We remained there for about another three hours until a team of fighters arrived in a vehicle. They told us to follow them, and we were with our military jeep, fearing that IDF helicopters might mistake us because our vehicle looked like that of the Arabs. We prayed and recited the Shema Yisrael. The Almighty was there with immense protection, and Lali prayed."
"The police van escorted us with fighters towards Ofakim. They told us to turn on four blinkers, honk your horn, and if there's gunfire from the front or the back, overtake us from behind. If there's gunfire from the front, stay behind us, and we'll protect you. We left Alumim and from there headed to Ashkelon."
Dor concludes the horrific "experience" they went through that morning. "We managed to come out safely with not too many physical injuries, but there are a lot of emotional wounds. Our friends were kidnapped, my girlfriend's friends are behind enemy lines, and what they are doing to them is a tragedy. The world needs to know; they are simply corrupting them. We need to convey this message that we are not like them. We are the children of God, and we didn't kill children in Gaza, and we didn't abuse their women."
