Ein HaBesor

Hamas terrorists attacked Moshav Ein HaBesor with the aim of massacring and kidnapping residents to the Gaza Strip. The moshav’s security chief , Yoav Shefer, immediately became aware of the battles being waged in the council’s other communities, and was able to quickly mobilize his moshav’s civil defense team. Within a few minutes, the members of the civil defense team took up positions around the perimeter fence, immediately after which, vans and motorcycles arrived at the western gate of the moshav with about 30-50 Hamas terrorists, and a shootout began. The terrorists fired long-barreled assault rifles, threw grenades and fired RPG rockets. The civil defense team was armed with only 5 long-barreled M-16 rifles and some private pistols. “The main gate was the first to be hit in all of the other communities. At our place, it was damaged and we found ourselves, just two guys with private weapons closing the gate and conducting a battle from a hundred meters using pistols,” says Gottlieb, whose father used to be the  security chief Ein HaBesor. “They started shooting at us with RPGs and Kalashnikovs, there was an unit of maybe 50 armed men – and we shot back at them from a hundred meters away, with pistols. Only at ten at night, after a whole day of fighting, six more weapons arrived to help us. And it was still just a drop in the ocean. We are a community with a thousand residents protected by a few men with 12 rifles and private weapons. No vests and no helmets, but we were not invaded. By early morning the next day soldiers joined us and took control here.”

Their incredible success against all odds can be understood in light of recent events. Due to a plague of car and weapons thefts it was decided a few months ago to increase the civil defense team at the moshav. Raz Shapira, a member of that team, said: “We grew to 78 members, usually there had been between eight to twelve. The goal was to thwart any suspicious movement. The army took away most of our weapons a few months ago because of the thefts. They were afraid that the weapons would be stolen.” Every night a group of five to seven members patrolled along fences to ambush thieves, which was why the team was so well prepared to spring into action on the morning of October 7th. The resistance put up by the dozens of residents of the small community evidently convinced the terrorists to give up and go wreak carnage elsewhere. “Probably because of the initial blow we gave,” said Yariv Levin, one of the members of the civil defense team who fought heroically and was injured, “they decided to leave Ein HaBesor and moved on.”

During the battle, another member of the civil defense team, Elad Gefner held off the terrorist squad at the front gate of the moshav until he was wounded in the shoulder by a bullet and needed immediate evacuation to Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva. His brother Dr. Yiftah Gefner, a medical professor from Tel Aviv University, took charge and tried to evacuate him from the back gate of the moshav. On their first attempt they encountered many terrorists who shot at the car, wounding Elad several more times. Dr. Gefner recounts, “We were in contact with the Magen David Adom Medical Center, and they said to us, ‘Don’t even think about going on the road, everyone on the road is dying.’ We turned around. In retrospect, the entire road from the Magen Junction was full of damaged vehicles. The terrorists lay down on the side of the road, shot at every car that drove by and killed the driver.” Elad eventually made it to Soroka hospital and will make a full recovery.

On Sunday, October 8, 2023, the day after the battle, the people of the moshav began to evacuate of their own accord, and by Monday, October 9, the army went from house to house requesting that the residents evacuate in secured convoys. The residents were housed in host towns in the Arava and in hotels in Eilat and the Dead Sea. A total of 950 residents were evacuated from the moshav, while about 100 residents remained in Ein HaBesor. Some of them are in the civil defense team and the rest have taken it upon themselves to fulfill roles such as the Tzahi team (local emergency team), operating the mini market, forming a cooking team for soldiers and the civil defense team, and more. To reinforce the civil defense team, the IDF stationed a military force in moshav.

Dr. Gefner relates, “I live here with all the friends I’ve known since kindergarten. I have a beautiful home. Until the Hamas invasion on October 7, there was a feeling that there was no safer place in the world. My 8-year-old can walk alone at night with zero concern that something will happen.” He is determined to revive that tranquility. “We created a beautiful place here at Moshav Ein HaBesor, and soon, we will be even stronger. We have come through wars, and we will get through this one because we have no other choice. This is the only country for the Jews.”