From 1948 to 1967, Egypt controlled Gaza. At that time, the people living there were not clamoring for their own country–they were content to be under Egyptian control. In 1967, during the 6-day war, Israel gained control of Gaza. The majority of the population in Gaza at that time was Arabs from various countries. There was no cry for a Palestinian state during the time Egypt, Jordan, and other nations controlled the land that Israel won back in the 6-day war. Why was it, Bethlehem resident Walid Shoebat once stated, “that on June 4th,1967, I was a Jordanian and overnight I became a Palestinian?” In June 2004, the Israeli government approved Ariel Sharon’s plan for disengagement from Gaza. In 2005, that plan was carried out. Israelis were forcibly removed from their homes. The greenhouses that the Israelis had built that fed much of the country were left behind. The Israeli government believed that moving Israel out of Gaza would reduce friction between Israelis and Palestinians, as well as free up vast sums of money (then being spent on the small settler population) to advance other issues on the national security agenda. Unfortunately, that was not the way it worked out. The residents of Gaza dismantled the greenhouses, the source of economic stability in the area, and used the pipes in the greenhouses to make rockets. In 2005, Palestinians began rocket attacks on Israel. Those rocket attacks have continued. The last rocket fired from Gaza to Israel was October 7, 2025.
On October 7th, 2023, the unimaginable happened.
…IDF field observers at the Nahal Oz outpost identify two gunmen running towards the fence. They also see terrorists detonating parts of the border fence. At 6:45 a.m., system disruptions at the outposts lead to some 70 terrorists raiding the base, with more joining the murderous raid later in the morning.
In Kfar Aza, Ynet photographer Roi Idan takes the first footage of Hamas paragliders entering Israel. Minutes later, his wife, Smadar, is killed before he himself is murdered while holding his three-year-old daughter, Abigail.
Some 3,500 revelers attended the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im the night before. When the first interceptions and blasts were heard, they were told to lie on the ground and protect their heads with their hands despite no sirens being triggered in the area. At 6:32 a.m., party organizers announced the event had ended and called on everyone to leave. Most left towards the car park.
The Jerusalem Post reports that at 6:50:
Hundreds of terrorist invaders begin entering Israeli towns, from terrorists on jeeps seen driving through Sderot to infiltrations of Be’eri, Kissufim, Ofakim, and Nahal Oz. By 7:20 a.m., an emergency standby squad of the kibbutz near the Erez crossing identifies some 20 terrorists making their way towards the kibbutz.
A traffic jam ensues at the exit from the Re’im festival area as only one route, Route 232, leads out of the car park. Terrorists who infiltrated the Gaza Strip and saw the movements of cars in the area opened fire at the vehicles shortly before seven, barring the exit. Hostages were taken on the scene.
The attack continues:
9:00: Ronen Engel is killed by terrorists while attempting to defend his family. His body is taken to the Gaza Strip. At 9:26 a.m., Ronen’s wife, Karina, is taken captive, while their two daughters, Mika and Yuval, are taken captive.
9:06: An Israeli woman is killed by rocket debris in Tel Aviv, marking the first death on October 7 that did not occur in the South.
9:30: Terrorists begin a mass massacre and mass murder of whoever is on site of the Nova festival. 364 civilians, Israelis, and foreign nationals were horrifically murdered as videos of fleeing party-goers flooded social media. During this time, terrorists who had infiltrated Kfar Aza began massacring and kidnapping residents….
12:15: Terrorists take control of areas and homes in kibbutz Be’eri and begin to de-facto occupy much of Israel’s south and Gaza border area. In these hours, Nira Sharabi saved seven other kibbutz residents that terrorists were attempting to take captive. Nira’s husband, Yossi Sharabi, and her brother-in-law Eli are kidnapped to the Gaza Strip.
2:00: Israel’s security cabinet convenes for the first time in the day, seven-and-a-half hours after the invasion begins. In Be’eri, some 40 terrorists embedded themselves in homes, transferring the 15 hostages they had taken in the kibbutz to houses under their control.
2:17: The first group of IDF soldiers reach the site of the Nova party.
2:30: Officers from the Border Police’s YAMAM counter-terrorism unit rescue police officers who were in a police station that was surrounded and subsequently torched by Hamas terrorists.
Evidently the plan of the terrorists was to have allied terrorist groups attack Israel from the north and east. The plan was to overrun the country and achieve the Islamist goal of ‘driving Israel into the sea.’ That was the beginning of the war that began in Gaza and now has migrated to Iran, the major financial resource for all of these terrorist groups. Can you imagine what Iran would be like with a nuclear weapon? Is it a stretch to believe that Iran would share nuclear weapons with terrorist groups?
Never again happened on October 7th. We need to remember those who fought bravely to end the attack and those who were taken captive in the attack. Support for Israel is not optional–it is support for the only true democracy in the Middle East where people of all races and religions have the freedom to practice their religion and to participate in the government.