We began our 11th week by boarding the bus and heading south, to the Gaza Envelope. It was an out of body experience to see how close we were to the war. Our first stop was in a small town, a couple miles from the Gaza border called Sderot. We learned about how life is always heightened there because of the constant rockets and missiles. We learned that its almost a daily occurrences that HMAS fires rockets indiscriminately into Israel. Pre-schools, Hospitals, residences alike are all targets. What was interesting is the time to run to a safe room is decreased to 10 seconds in Sderot. My teacher told us how most of the people who live there, don’t want to leave even though its incredibly close to the boarder. I couldn’t ever imagine living so close.

After our visit, we had a bit of fun and exercise and went to an indoor trampoline park that was created by Jewish National Fund (JNF). This play area was actually a huge bomb-shelter that was made for children to play in. It was very fun, we were all jumping and flipping on the trampolines. After, we went to what is supposed to be the “Yad Vashem” the World Holocaust Remembrance Center of October 7th. This place was called Tkuma. The first thing we saw when we walked in was a wall of burned cars that were piled a few stories tall. We saw a dozens of cars displayed that had in front QR codes. All of these cars were burned and destroyed the day of October 7th by Hamas and the codes were to link to the story of how the people of each car were attacked, what happened to them and the horrors that they experienced that fateful day. It was surreal seeing this in person. I even recognized a couple cars from videos I have seen from IDF and Hamas footage on the news/social media. It was extremely difficult to see as every single car had its own story. These were all young kids like me and my friends. I also was comparing this to seeing the stolen personal belongings of all the victims at Auschwitz in Poland. One thing about Poland, everything we saw was from so long ago, it made it hard to imagine the horrors. However, seeing these cars in person was so raw and new. In the backseat of one of the cars I saw a cooler with sprite cans. Even seeing simple soda cans hit very hard because it was a reminder of how fresh and modern this tragedy is. How this gruesome attack can still happen in 2023 was bewildering to me. The tortures, rapes, mutilations, indiscriminate shoots, stabbing, and grenade tossing was simply horrific that mankind is able to be so depraved… to be such monsters. To hate people just because they are different from them. I felt there is truly good and evil in this world and I committed once again to myself that I will always fight for the good. The words of my parents echoed in my soul as I walked around, smelled the scent of death still after all this time, saw the blood stained sands, witnessed and learned of the horrific details that we must always, no matter what be the light in this world.

After, we drove on the 232 road which is the road where Hamas attacked most of the victims. We stopped at a pit-stop that was for soldiers going into Gaza. It was a place to mentally prepare for going into a war-zone. We spoke to some of the soldiers about the emotions they held about entering Gaza. Many were very nervous. Meeting these young IDF soldiers, it was a reminder that these are students, young professionals, mothers, fathers, University mates… they were people like any of my friends… the stark reminder that they were a civilian army who did not want this war but were determined to not allow for another genocide by people who simply wanted them dead and were willing to fight to protect themselves.

We drove to the sight of the Nova Festival. To paint the picture, it was in a field with lots of trees. We were hearing sounds of bombs exploding and gun fire is the distance as we walked around the homemade memorials of each victim horrifically slaughtered. Their individual photos were placed on a stick that was stuck in the very sand where the were butchered by these animals. It felt very surreal to be there. I recognized posters of different victims that I have seen on the news. The sight of the festival is actually not open for tourism unless there is special permission. I looked closely around and noticed trash that still remained from the actual festival, thats how fresh this is still. The scent of death was powerful.

I thought being at the Nova festival site would make me extremely emotional. However, I was consumed with sheer anger. Anger towards Hamas, anger towards the “freedom fighters” on college campuses in the US who don’t know history and are espousing falsehoods and being ‘useful idiots,’ and and most of all anger towards the entire social media world for glorifying what Hamas had done to these innocent civilians. I felt the world is backwards and was reminded by the words that my dad shared with me that Golda Meir once said, “Israel itself is the strongest guarantee against another Holocaust.” I felt that I was seeing in real time another variation of Holocaust a true Progrom. I also remembered her words “The only way to eliminate war is to love our children more than we hate our enemies.” I felt agitated as I know the enemies of the Jewish people are willing to martyr their very own children just to inflict as much pain and murder as they can. In fact their leadership (the Palestinian Authority, Hezbolla HAMAS and other Iranian proxie fighters) actually pay families to commit such atrocities and are celebrated and promised a life after death in “paradise”… and I wondered how was it ever possible to resolve such hatred between those who celebrate death with those who celebrate life!?!?

Later, we spent the night in Beersheva which is still in Southern Israel. We had DOTS at the mall and I went to sushi with 3 of my friends. Delicious!!! The next day, we went on a walking tour of a town called, Okakim. This town is a couple miles away from the Gaza boarder, and was unfortunately hit the hardest. We listened to many different testimonies from the locals who lived there about what they experienced on October 7th. It was crazy to hear how regular civilians just like me had their lives completely and forever changed on that day. We learned that since October 7th, there have also been over 50 suicides from the survivors of that day as the grief, guilt of survival and sheer nightmares had become too hard to handle. This breaks my heart.

After our tour, we volunteered a bit and did some farming because all of the Tai farmers had to go back to Taiwan after October 7th and they needed all the support they can find to help keep the farms alive. After this, we drove to Ben-Gurion University in the Negav. We toured the university by playing a version of the Amazing Race which was a lot of fun. We needed the mental reprieve from the stark contrast of the reality we just experienced and keep the will to live life to its fullest alive. My team won of course so we got some swag as a prize. As a sophomore in high school looking at colleges, seeing this Israeli University was very interesting and inspiring to see a non US campus. I personally wouldn’t want to go there as I do want the US experience, but I liked seeing how life for the students is there and how advanced this institution is.

The rest of the week was more relaxed as we continued with our classes and regular school schedule. The weather is getting hotter and hotter, so my friends and I like to find time to tan and grab smoothies at the local smoothie place in our lunch breaks.

We ended the night by walking back to the hotel. While walking back, we saw in the sky filled with the hundreds missiles and UAV’s being fired from Iran and the Iron-Dome’s interceptions. It was extremely crazy to see this in person. I imaged what it must of been like for my Grandfather who grew up in London during the Blizkrieg where night after night for 57 consecutive nights the Germans pounded London with thousands of missiles. Many people at home while I been here have asked me if I am ever scared or feel unsafe because of the war, and every time I say “no I weirdly feel safer than I do living in the US”. Statistically speaking, the chances of being attacked here is less than being killed in the US by a drunk driver, criminal of even a devastating car crash. Seeing the Iron Domb in action affirmed my feelings about saftey even though we were extremely close to Lebanon.

Saturday, we tried to catch up on sleep and slept most of the day which was very relaxing since none of us have really relaxed or slept in a while. We also learned from an American-Israeli Mediator about how to meditate conflict. We had some free-time the rest of the day and then concluded the week with Havdala in a cave . It was so nice to listen to our voices echoing while singing prayers and songs. After Havdala, we were quickly rushed to the bus and told to “duck if you hear a siren”. We were all riled-up after hearing this from our teachers but they calmed us all down. We drove back to Hod Hasharon and got back to campus around midnight. Once we got back, we were greeted by one of the deans. He updated us on the Iran threat and that there will be a good chance we will have a siren tonight. We were all alarmed but were told instructions that in the event of a siren, we must go straight to the bomb shelter. In Israel, almost every building you go into, there will be a bomb shelter. The government invested billions of dollars to protect its civilians unlike the neighbors in Gaza who built terror tunnels instead. Our dorms have one just downstairs from my room. I called all my friends and family and let them know that I am okay, since social media and the news had already blown up about the attack. I packed a “go-bag” just in case we had to go without ample time to prepare. In my bag I had chargers, toiletries, snacks, a book, personal items and water. At around 2am, one of my Mardrichas (councilor), told us to go into the bomb-shelter. I along with my other roommates quickly followed her. Everyone was in the shelter already. We all sat and just waited. We were there for almost 45 minutes. There wasn’t actually a siren in Hod Hasharon, but they wanted to be safe. Everyone remained calm which was good. I cuddled up with my friends and we all just sat and waited for it to be over. Its crazy because I know that I am in Israel during a war, but before this night, I never really felt the war. This night I certainly did, but I still felt safe with the protection of the IDF. Luckily classes were canceled in the early morning so we could sleep.

This week was definitely one I will never forget.

Stay tuned for next week!

Xoxo,