Painted rocks with the word peace in English and Hebrew cover a segment of the wall separating Netiv HaAsara from the Gaza Strip. (Photo: Joshua Weinberger)

A community’s struggle to remain hopeful while being on Gaza’s doorstep

By Joshua Weinberger

Joshua Weinberger
Aug 8, 2017 · 6 min read

NETIV HAASARA, ISRAEL

The small hilltop community of Netiv HaAsara in southern Israel is like many other Israeli villages. There are modest red-tiled roof homes lining the streets, swimming pools for those wanting to escape hot summer days, kindergartens where the children learn and greenhouses where the farmers spend their hours cultivating the land.

Nothing here seems abnormal, except for the fact that every public structure is designed to serve as an impenetrable shelter.

Though tensions have eased considerably since the 2014 Israel-Gaza War, new bomb shelters —partially funded by the government — are continuing to be built in Netiv HaAsara — a community that is struggling to maintain its vision of a peaceful tomorrow while being near the frontline of one of the most troublesome corners of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This time three years ago, the village was deserted as explosions rocked the ground in the distance and destructive rockets pierced the sky overhead.

As recently as Aug., 8 code red sirens were heard in southern Israel. A rocket, fired from Gaza, smashed into an open area close to Ashkelon.

About 400 meters away from the edge of Beit Lahiya in the Gaza Strip, Netiv HaAsara is the closest Israeli community to the Hamas-ruled enclave. Tall concrete walls as well as a detection fence guard the southern section of the village against potential infiltrations by Hamas fighters.

Despite the dangers, “there is not one vacant house on the village,” said 73-year-old resident Roni Keidar, a committed peace activist who has 16 grandchildren, many of whom live in Netiv HaAsara.

Keidar and her husband were among the original group of families responsible for relocating the village from the Sinai Peninsula to its current spot following the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.

“We were very busy and highly motivated into reaching the same standards that we had managed to achieve in the ten years in the northern Sinai,” she said. “We had a very good relationship with our Palestinian neighbors. Many of them came to work with us in the fields. We would cross there [into Gaza]; they would cross over to us.”

Unlike past situations, Palestinians residing in the Gaza Strip today cannot easily travel to neighboring Israeli towns to work unless they are granted special permits from the Israeli government.

“And then things started going from bad to worse,” Keidar said, referring to the rise of Hamas and two violent Palestinian Intifadas — or uprisings — against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. Israel occupied Gaza in 1967, but did a unilateral pullout of soldiers and settlers 12 years ago this month.

Throughout these difficult times Netiv HaAsara was targeted, in addition to numerous other Israeli communities situated nearby.

Roni Keidar (right) stands beside her son, Yoel (left). (Photo: Joshua Weinberger)

“Rockets, missiles, mortar shells on a daily basis, several times a day,” Keidar said, during an interview inside her home. “Sometimes with a gap in between, but we would never know.”

The 2014 Israel-Gaza War saw Hamas and other terrorist organizations fire over 4,500 rockets and mortars into Israel, according to a full summary of the fighting released online by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs a year after the conflict. Six Israeli civilians and 67 IDF soldiers were killed. In Gaza, the Israeli military’s overwhelming air assault left 2,314 Palestinians dead.

“I can’t completely forget that if there is another alert, what are we going to do,” said Keidar, whose home sustained minor damage after being hit by a Hamas rocket in 2014. “We do have this constant fear that we have to learn to overcome.”

Outside on the front lawn, with a hazy, unobstructed view towards the coastal city of Ashkelon, a few of her grandchildren were playfully swarming a jungle gym.

“It has been traumatic for all of us,” Keidar said, explaining how a “lack of hope and mistrust” can be seen on the children’s faces, including the adults — even if it is hidden. “People are angry.”

But the community overall, she said, is “strong and supportive,” adding, “I won’t change this for life anywhere else in the country … this is my home, why should I leave it?”

As a former resident of Egypt and as someone who has spoken to Gazan children in the past, she is also well aware of the Palestinian narrative.

“We are two people who look at the same history, the same dates; each one from a different perspective. We have got to approach this problem with a little more humility and with a little more understanding — not saying, it is either you or me, but saying, we have both got to understand that we deserve something better,” Keidar said. “Somehow I believe it can be.”

A report published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Sept., 2015 warned that Gaza, which has an estimated population of 2 million people, could become “uninhabitable” as soon as 2020 if economic conditions continued to deteriorate.

Its already-limited electricity supply was cut further last month at the request of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, in an escalation of his feud with Hamas, the Islamist group that wrestled control of the Strip from forces loyal to him a decade ago.

“I want peace,” said Keidar’s son Yoel, 47, a father of four. However, “if you will have the same situation that you have here in the West Bank, Israel will not exist. You will have rockets in Jerusalem, in Tel Aviv, in Ra’anana, in Haifa — all over Israel.”

Buildings in Gaza become visible as a portion of the concrete wall dips below the hilltop. (Photo: Joshua Weinberger)

He said that he feels the next battle between Israel and Hamas will be more painful than the last due to a likely willingness on the part of Hamas to launch deadlier weapons at adjacent urban centers.

“I think in the next war some of the people will not find their homes when they will come back,” he said.

Once a staffer in the human resources department of the Prime Minister’s Office, Yoel currently works as a farmer growing a variety of seed crops.

The number of farmers in Netiv HaAsara, which at one point formed the lifeblood of the community, has steadily been on the decline. The vast majority of residents instead commute to different Israeli cities for employment. Hila Fenlon, 39, a neighbor of the Keidar’s is an exception to this growing trend.

“Our lives depend on cement and metal,” said Fenlon, in front of a white Toyota pickup truck that she uses to get to and from the greenhouses where a multitude of her vegetables are produced. “Both my kids have grown up thinking that rockets are a way of life, thinking that it is a normal thing, and this is how it is in the world.”

Each time her two young kids venture out of the community, they are aware of the exact locations of the nearest bomb shelters. The average amount of time residents have to run to a bomb shelter is 15 seconds, and less when mortar shells are incoming.

“We are building rooms to hide; they [Hamas] are building tunnels to attack,” Fenlon said. “You know it is happening, you know it is going to come,” and “people are nervous.”

According to IDF figures, the army destroyed a total of 32 tunnels during the 2014 Israel-Gaza War. Fourteen of which crossed the border and were in fact in Israeli territory. It is not yet known exactly how many Hamas has rebuilt, extended or has finished constructing anew.

“Somebody has to live near the border; it just so happens that this is our time,” Fenlon said.

But the digging of tunnels is a never-ending concern, at least for her. “We are living in the very dark shadow of a terrorist organization that has decided to make our life into a living hell,” she said.

Still, Fenlon has not completely parted with the idea of Israel pursuing a peace agreement. “I am willing to give up everything that I have right now for peace,” she said.

“Maybe I will live to see the day when I can take my kids to Gaza.”

Joshua Weinberger

Written by

Student of Journalism and Political Science at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada

The Jerusalem Project

The work of student journalists reporting from the Middle East as part of ieiMedia Jerusalem

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade