The communities that bore the blow
The kibbutzim and towns of southern Israel where a festival morning turned into tragedy.
About 1,200 lives
On this day about 1,200 people were killed: infants and the elderly, parents and children, entire families, people from dozens of countries, foreign workers, police and soldiers who rushed to defend others.
Their memory is not an impersonal number. In Israel they recall the words of the poet Zelda: 'Each person has a name.' To remember is to call them by name and keep their stories.
Where it happened
Be'eri
A kibbutz by the border, one of the hardest hit: about a hundred of its residents were killed and many were taken captive.
Kfar Aza
A small kibbutz that lost dozens of residents; its name became a symbol of the tragedy of the border communities.
Nir Oz
In this kibbutz nearly one in four residents was killed or abducted — entire families were taken into Gaza.
Nahal Oz
The kibbutz and the military base beside it took one of the first and heaviest blows of the attack.
Sderot
A town by the border that has lived under rockets for years; on this day fighting raged in its very streets.
Ofakim
A town away from the border, reached by fighters along the highway; residents defended themselves until help arrived.
The blow fell on everyone
Among the dead and the abducted were all kinds of people — the tragedy spared neither age nor citizenship.
Families and children
Entire families were killed or taken away together — from nursing infants to great-grandparents.
Soldiers and responders
Soldiers, police, medics and ordinary residents died protecting others and carrying the wounded out of the line of fire.
Citizens of many countries
Among the victims were citizens of dozens of states and foreign workers who had come to work in Israel.
To remember name by name
Across Israel and the world, memorials are built, names are read, and trees are planted. To say a name is to say: this person existed, they loved and were loved, and they are not forgotten.