Back in 2021, The Weekly first met Roni Keidar when she was working with a young Palestinian man, Rami Aman, to create greater understanding between Gaza and Israel. That inspired hope. Now she has a tragic story to share – about the morning of October 7 this year, when Hamas attacked her village.
Roni was just waking up in the rural village of Netiv Haasara when she received the first phone alert about rocket fire from Gaza. As her village backs onto the border, the 79-year-old knew she had just 15 seconds to get into her safe room, a reinforced bunker.
Roni didn’t realise that this attack would be more violent than anything she had ever known – that it would take the lives of more than 1400 Israelis (most of them civilians) and that its reprisals would escalate to kill 2670 Palestinians in just the first 10 days. Its impact would touch her family, her village, the entire region.
“The first rocket fire was at 6.30am and we already had no electricity,” Roni tells The Weekly. “People were soon sending messages saying there were attackers inside the village. Everyone was to stay in their safe rooms.”
Roni did not know then that two members of her extended family were already fighting the intruders. “Brothers Igal and Amit Waks were among
