Nir Oz to rebuild its kibbutz

Kibbutz Nir Oz near Gaza was one of the communities hardest hit by the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023. 117 of its 400 residents were either killed, murdered or kidnapped.
The residents of Nir Oz believe that returning and rebuilding will be “the real, meaningful victory.”

The first words that Gadi Mozes, 80, said after 482 days as a hostage of Islamic Jihad were: “I will do everything in my power to restore Nir Oz.” Photo: Maayan Tuaf/GPO

Of the thousands of rockets fired at Israel on the morning of October 7, dozens fell in Nir Oz in southern Israel. While residents hid in shelters in their homes, terrorists surrounded the community, broke into their homes, and shot and massacred entire families.
During the war, air raid sirens continued to sound in southern Israel as a total of 27,000 missiles were fired at Israel over the following 15 months by Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi terror groups, as well as Iran.
Most of the families in Kibbutz Nir Oz have still not returned to their homes. 80 percent of the houses need to be rebuilt. On February 20, four bodies of Hamas hostages, all from Kibbutz Nir Oz, were returned: peace activist Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was captured, and Shiri Bibas and her two young children Ariel and Kfir Bibas. A country in mourning received the coffins after a tasteless Hamas ceremony that used the bodies as political messages and to insult the grieving families.

It later emerged that Shiri Biba’s body could not be identified and that the body in the coffin was that of an unknown woman from Gaza, a violation of all decency and of agreements made. Hamas admitted that they had made a mistake and mixed up the bodies, and the following day Shiri Biba’s remains were returned.
A video from October 7, 2023 that went viral showed a young mother, Shiri, with her red-haired children in her arms, her face filled with terror as she was surrounded by terrorists. Several images showed Yarden bleeding from the head as he was pushed forward by armed men in a cheering crowd. When Yarden Bibas, the father of the two cute little red-haired children, was released on February 1, he had lost 15 kilograms. Both of Shiri’s parents were killed in the Nir Oz attack.
Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas’ funeral took place on February 26. Shiri Bibas and her two children were all buried in the same coffin, next to Shiri Bibas’ parents. Thousands of Israelis lined the road all the way down to Nir Oz in the south, to give tribute and pay their respects to the funeral procession.

Oded Lifshitz was one of Israel’s foremost peacemakers, active in the peace movement and a person who made efforts to bridge the differences between Israel and Gaza. His house was very close to the Gaza border in Kibbutz Nir Oz and before Hamas came to power he used to cross the border to educate Gazan children and help sick Gazans travel to Jerusalem for treatment in Israeli hospitals. Oded’s wife Yochevet was also kidnapped on October 7 and released in connection with the first exchange at the end of 2023. Oded Lifshitz was reportedly held in an apartment in Khan Yunis for about twenty days, before his health and condition deteriorated with an unknown outcome. A released female hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz stated that she saw him alive during his time in captivity.
On February 19, 2025, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) said it would return his body the following day, as part of the ongoing ceasefire agreement. On February 20, Lifshitz’s family confirmed that his body had been identified. PIJ claimed he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in late 2023, but the Israeli government stated that he was killed in captivity more than a year ago, which was confirmed by the head of the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute.

Despite this inhuman suffering, Kibbutz Nir Oz released a statement late last year declaring that its reconstruction and return of its residents will be “the real, meaningful victory,” The Times of Israel reports.
Gadi Mozes, 80, was one of the residents of Nir Oz who was kidnapped on October 7, 2023. He was released in late January after 482 days held hostage by Islamic Jihad. His first words after his release from captivity in Gaza were: “I will do everything in my power to restore Nir Oz.”