Elyakim Arava Family
Amir and Miri Tibon were preparing for a trip when the alarms sounded. For 10 hours, they hid in the safe room with daughters, Galia (3) & Carmel (1) while terrorists fired all around – including in their home. Meanwhile, Amir's parents, Noam and Gali made their way from Tel Aviv to rescue them. At 4 PM they arrived. “Grandpa’s here” Galia said.
Gallia and Carmel
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Even before alarms sound, Miri wakes up from the whistling sound of a mortar shell falling. She and Amir run to the safe room, which serves as the bedroom for three-year-old Galia and one-year-old Carmel, who are still asleep. The parents start packing for their trip to their family that lives in the center of the country.
Family members hear the sounds of automatic gunfire from the direction of the kibbutz's fields. When they notice that the gunfire is coming closer, they lock the door of the safe room and realize that they will not have time to leave, as planned.
Family members hear the gunfire inside their neighborhood, the Sadot neighborhood - the first point in the kibbutz into which the terrorists penetrated and where the first battles between them and the Israeli Border Police's tactical unit (YAMAS) took place
The terrorists arrive at the Tibon family home and shoot automatic fire through the window into the living room. Galia and Carmel wake up to the sounds of gunfire and the screams of the terrorists. Amir and Miri explain to them that they need to be quiet and wait.
With cellphone reception intermittent, Amir manages to keep his parents, Maj. Gen. (rsv) Noam Tibon and Dr. Gali Mir-Tibon, informed. Amir, a journalist at Haaretz, also updates his colleagues, Amos Harel and Yaniv Kobowitz, who cover military affairs. The two relay the information about what is happening in Nahal Oz to the officers with whom they are in contact. Meanwhile, outside the locked safe room window, the shooting continues.
Noam and Gali leave their home in Tel Aviv in their unprotected jeep on their way to rescue their family. Noam is armed only with his private pistol. He updates Amir: “We are coming to get you.” With Gali driving, Noam sits next to her and sends messages to all the top echelons of the IDF, including Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, about the terrorists who are near his son's house
Noam and Gali arrive at Kibbutz Mefalsim near Nahal Oz, where they see a pair of survivors from the Nova party and drive them north. After that, they return to Nahal Oz under fire and wait for a long time at the intersection of Mefalsim, while a battle rages at the gate of the kibbutz
A force of the National Counter-Terrorism Unit arrives at Mefalsim Junction, and Major General (Res.) Tibon tries to persuade them to join him in the Nahal Oz rescue mission. One fighter agrees, Avi Zaafrani, and the two head out towards the kibbutz. Gali remains to wait inside the shelter at Mefalsim Junction
Along the access road to Nahal Oz, Noam and Avi notice a Maglan special forces unit that has been ambushed, and they join the fighting. Major Chen Buchris, Capt. Yiftach Yavetz and Sgt. Afik Rozental had already been killed in the encounter.
When the battle is over, Noam evacuates three wounded soldiers in his vehicle to the shelter at Mefalsim Junction, where Gali his wife is waiting. She continues with the wounded to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon in their jeep. General (Res) Israel Ziv, who was also heading south, meets Noam and they travel in Ziv's vehicle to Kibbutz Nahal Oz
Noam Tibon and Israel Ziv arrive at the gate of the kibbutz, where they join Maglan and Givati forces. Noam joins a group of Maglan soldiers that has begun moving house by house, killing at least six terrorists. While fighting, he tries to contact his son Amir and inform him that he is approaching, but the family members' phones are turned off. The only hint Amir gets that the rescue is imminent is the sounds of battles between fighters and terrorists
After about 10 hours barricaded in the safe room without electricity and food, members of the Tibon family hear a knock at the window and then Noam's voice. Galia declares that “Grandpa has arrived”, and Carmel says “Grandpa, Grandpa” with her. The Maglan force sets up a command station in the family house.
Amir, Miri and the girls, Galia and Carmel, are evacuated on the second bus departing from Nahal Oz northbound
Along with other members of the kibbutz saved from the Hamas attack, the Tibon family is evacuated to Mishmar HaEmek
The rescue campaign by Amir's parents reverberates in local and world media. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken tells in his speech of “the grandfather who drove over an hour to a kibbutz under siege armed only with a pistol and rescued his kids and grandkids.”
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin tells the story of the rescue: “And perhaps because I'm a retired general, I was especially moved by the story of a retired general named Noam Tibon. … (who) jumped into his car in Tel Aviv and raced toward the combat zone. He linked up with other fighters and … when the general arrived at their house, one of his granddaughters just said, ‘Grandpa is here.’ And these are rays of hope in a terrible week.”
המתחם האינטראקטיבי של מפת העוטף ב-7 באוקטובר 2023 נועד לתעד ולהנציח את האירועים שהתרחשו ביישובי עוטף עזה באמצעות תיעודים מזמן אמת, דקה אחר דקה.
הפרויקט בהליכי בנייה ותחקיר, בשלבים הבאים יתווספו נקודות רבות על המפה, לרבות בסיסי צה”ל, הרחבת אזורי המסיבות והדרכים המובילות לעוטף.
לפרטים נוספים וליצירת קשר לחצו כאן
אזהרה: התוכן מכיל תיאורים ותיעודים קשים לצפייה
