Six months later, she returned to salvage what she could from the lifetime of memories she had left behind.
She had only an hour. We were given the opportunity to make our first trip back home under the cover of darkness,” she said to News. “I couldn’t stop crying.”
Kibbutz Manara, which had once housed over 300 people, appeared to be a war zone when she arrived. We quickly ran to our house, which is the one closest to the Lebanese border, after hearing explosions above us. She stated that we were unable to open the windows and there was no electricity.
She proceeded from room to room with a flashlight in hand, collecting whatever she could fit into a big garbage bag. With only one room left for them, the family of five is currently cramped and has little place for extras. “I couldn’t bring my daughter’s dollhouse, even though she requested it. The best part was discovering our cat alive. The children were really happy to see him,” she says.
She packed her things and fled the kibbutz not long before a Hezbollah missile struck her home. Her house joined the astounding 75% of kibbutz buildings in the north that have sustained damage as a result of Hezbollah’s ceaseless bombing.
