terrorism

Yoni Suher, murdered on his birthday

I call myself an amateur true crime writer, and I have vowed to tell the stories of every single victim of October 7, even if it takes me the rest of my life. But October 7 was not the first terror crime against Jews. It might have been the worst since the Holocaust, but it was not the first, by far. Terrorism directed at Jews and Israelis has been happening for many years. So this time, I want to tell the story of someone I knew personally, someone who was murdered in a terror attack, for no reason at all, except that he was Jewish.

That person is Yoni Suher. I know his family well. They live in my kibbutz and I have known them for more than 23 years.

Yoni was the oldest of five children. His father is an American Jew who immigrated to Israel, married an Israeli woman and settled down in her kibbutz. All their children have American citizenship, in fact, Yoni was born in Portland, Oregon. Yoni’s father is a beloved member of our kibbutz, an English teacher and someone who went above and beyond to make our kibbutz a wonderful place to live. The entire family is very active in sports and three of the brothers, including Yoni, played handball on national level.

I might not be the best person to describe Yoni Suher. My husband grew up with him, but I didn’t know him well, as he left the kibbutz before I came to live here permanently. But I know that Yoni was a charismatic person, like his whole family. Someone who drew attention to him, who wasn’t afraid to take up space, to voice his opinions and take action. He was a very active person, who played sports and worked hard all his life. An intelligent guy, who spent his army days in the military police, who studied law and worked in hi-tech. Someone well-liked, with a lot of friends, who loved partying and travelling.

Yoni married Inbar Marom, a well-known television producer who produced some very popular TV shows, talent shows like Kohav Nulad, the Israeli version of American Idol. They lived in Tel Aviv and had two children together. They both loved travelling and food, so for Yoni’s 40th birthday, Inbal surprised him with a culinary trip to Istanbul, Turkey. It was an organized group tour from Israel, so the group consisted of Israelis. They were excited to go for a rare holiday together, without the children.

On March 19, 2016, the group was walking along Istiklal Street in Istanbul, talking and laughing, stopping to admire shop windows and restaurants. They also took a group photo. In this photo, Inbal is the second woman from the right, in the back. Yoni is standing next to her, his head is turned away from the camera.

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That same morning, a Turkish man by the name of Mehmet Öztürk arrived in Istanbul by bus, and walked through the city until he got to Istiklal Street. Under his coat, Mehmet wore a bomb belt. The bomb was filled with nails and sharp pieces of scrap metal. Mehmet knew that when he detonated the bomb, he would die. But he was not afraid. He was proud to give his life for his cause: the Islamic State. In his mind, radical Islam already ruled the world. And those who did not agree with that and lived as if they were in a free world, had to die. Sacrificing his life to kill those people, the infidels, was the highest honour, and he would be rewarded in the afterlife.

Mehmet Öztürk slowly walked along Istiklal Street. He was waiting. Waiting for the best opportunity, the ideal victims. Most people he saw were Muslims and spoke Turkish. They were unworthy, because they were secular Muslims, but he knew there were better targets on this street. And then, he heard a different language. A group of people passed him, chatting and laughing in that language, which he recognized as Hebrew. They were Jews, Zionists. The worst enemies of the Islamic State. Mehmet turned around and started to follow them. He had found his victims.

Moments later, a deafening explosion rang through the street.

Yoni Suher was killed instantly by the blast, together with two other Israeli tourists and an Iranian. Their names were Simcha Dimri, Avraham Goldman and Ali Razmkhah. Inbal was seriously injured, along with 36 others, who were of Israeli, Turkish and European nationalities.

The shockwaves of that explosion reached over the entire world. Our kibbutz was shaken to its core. Yoni’s family was heartbroken. His two young children had lost their father, and their mother was in hospital, fighting for her life. Yoni’s funeral was the most painful thing I had ever seen. Everyone was crying, everyone was holding on to each other and to the Suher family. We didn’t know what to do. We couldn’t make this better.

It was the first time I realized what murder really means, and the damage it does, not only to the victim, but to their family, their friends, their entire community. And I realized what it means to be a Jew, or an Israeli. To always look over your shoulder, to hide your identity, to make sure not to speak your language in public. And because I married an Israeli, this is now my reality, too.

Seven years have passed since Yoni’s murder. Fortunately, Inbal recovered physically and is back at work, back at being a mother. Whenever I ask the family how they are doing, they say they are ok. But I know something was broken in them that will never heal. Still, life goes on. Grandchildren were born, relationships formed, milestones reached. The family grows older. But Yoni will forever be 40 years old.

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Voices from Nir Am

Nir Am is a kibbutz at the border with Gaza, close to the town of Sderot. It has a population of around 600 people. It has agriculture fields and a dairy farm, a cutlery factory, a country lodge and a museum. The kibbutz also employs workers from Gaza, as many of the kibbutzim on the border do (or did).

The kibbutz security team consists of twelve people, who are all men, except for their commander. The leader of this team is Inbal Rabin-Liberman, a 26 year old woman who served in a combat unit in the IDF. In 2022, she took over the task from her uncle, Ami Rabin.

On October 7, Inbal was woken up at 6:30 by sirens and alerts from the national security, telling the people of the kibbutz to go into the shelters and safe rooms. This was not an uncommon occurance in this part of the country. The missiles shot at them from Gaza were usually (but not always) diffused by the Iron Dome defense system.

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But Inbal heard noises outside that she didn’t trust. She saw trucks driving around, up to the kibbutz gate and back again. She had a gut feeling that there was something worse going on today. So she called the members of her security team and told them to come and get weapons and then stationed them around the perimeter of the kibbutz. When the electricity failed, she told them not to turn it back on again, so the electric gates of the kibbutz would not open.

Because of the defense team’s quick action, Hamas was unable to enter the kibbutz. Several terrorists trying to scale the fence were shot by the security squad. The stories of this fight vary widely. Some articles say the fight lasted 12 hours, 25 terrorists were killed and Inbal shot 5 of them herself, but others report that it lasted 3 hours and only two terrorists were killed. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. But what is certain is that Inbal’s gut feeling and quick thinking saved kibbutz Nir Am.

Hamas was not able to enter kibbutz Nir Am, thanks to the armed volunteers stationed around the kibbutz at the fence. No one was hurt or abducted. Nir Am is the only kibbutz in the Gaza Envelope that wasn’t ruined, massacred and burned. And Inbal was hailed as a hero.

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But Inbal does not want this praise. She says she didn’t do anything special, she was just one of the many. So I will just repeat Inbal’s own words on Instagram:

“I see everything you write to me, and I want to tell you that you shouldn’t believe everything that’s written. There is a lot of fake news among the reports. I’m not a hero, and I wasn’t there by myself. I still can’t make sense of everything I’m going through, and therefore I can’t tell the real story – but I promise you will hear from me. So many people are still in the field fighting for their lives, and there were a lot more, fighting next to me and around me. I would like you to share this story in order to convey a message. Let’s engage in the important things, not in bombastic headlines.”

I decided to honour Inbal’s words, and not call this article “The Heroine of Nir Am”. Because there is another story that needs to be told, too.

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The terrorists did not get inside the kibbutz iself. But the fields and the chicken hatchery that belonged to the kibbutz were unprotected. And that morning, several people were already at work there. They were from Gaza, workers with a special day pass, who went back and forth between their homes in Gaza and their jobs in Israel. A lot of Palestinians work in Israel, from both Gaza and the West Bank. Like the Thais, they often work in agriculture and construction.

Hashim and Nabil al-Birawi are two brothers who worked in the fields of Nir Am for decades. They had a good relationship with their employers. “They treated us like family there,” Nabil says in +972 magazine. On the morning of October 7, Nabil and his team were already at work in the fields, while Hashim and his workers were still on the road, in a grey van driven by an Israeli Arab driver.

Hashim called his employer, Lior Golan, and told him he and the others had been shot by a “terrorist who came from the sky in a parachute.” Golan told them to run, to hide in the fields, but they couldn’t. They were too badly hurt. Later that day, the grey van was discovered with all its occupants shot dead.

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Nabil al-Birawi and his team hid in the orchards for 11 hours. Three of the workers were hit by bullets. In the evening, Ofer Liberman, Inbal’s father, was able to reach the workers and take the wounded to the hospital.

Nabil has been stuck in Israel since, along with many other Palestinian workers. He mourns the death of his brother and is desperate to correct the initial assumption that the people in the grey van were terrorists. They were all victims of Hamas. Like the 1200 Israelis who were murdered. Hamas killed anything on its path, like a war machine, like a natural disaster.

The kidnapping of Emily Hand

This is the story of Emily Hand. It will shatter your heart and then put it back together again. Partly, at least. Emily saw and experienced things no child should ever have to go through. She wasn’t the only one. But I feel a special connection to her and her father, because they are so much like me.

Emily is nine years old. She is the daughter of Thomas Hand, who is Irish and came to Israel as a kibbutz volunteer. Like I did. Thomas volunteered on kibbutz Be’eri and met a woman called Narkis, who he married and had two children with: Eden and Natali. The family lived in Be’eri. Later in life, when the children were teenagers, Thomas and Narkis divorced. Thomas met Liat Korenberg and they had a daughter together: Emily Tony Korenberg Hand. Sadly, Liat died of cancer when Emily was only two years old. So Emily lived alone with her father in kibbutz Be’eri. But she also spent a lot of time with Thomas’ ex-wife, Narkis, and her half-siblings, Eden and Natali. Narkis was like a mother to Emily. The family might have been unusual, but they were happy and close. This beautiful picture from Narkis’ facebook page shows that. In the photo, Narkis, Eden, Natali, Thomas and Emily are all sitting around the dinner table together. I can’t imagine a better way to be co-parents.

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On October 7, 2023, Emily was at a sleepover at the house of her friend, Hila Rotem. At 6 in the morning, the terrorists reached the kibbutz. In interviews, Emily’s father describes locking himself into the safe room in his house, hearing the terrorists outside, and exchanging text messages with his ex-wife. He describes the terror and helplessness he felt, knowing he couldn’t protect his daughter. If he had gone outside, he would have been murdered, which would not help Emily.

When at the end of the day, finally, the IDF regained control over the area, kibbutz Be’eri was a smoking, bloodstained ruin. Thomas had survived. But Emily was gone. So were her friend Hila and Hila’s mother, Raaya. And Narkis Hand had been murdered in her house. The happy blended family had been torn apart, half of it gone. The pain this kibbutz went through is indescribable. More than 120 people were brutally murdered and another 29 taken hostage.

Thomas was told that Emily was dead, that her body had been found. His first reaction was relief. He thought that being abducted to Gaza would have been a fate worse than death. He said in the Daily Mail: “They’d have no food. They’d have no water. She’d be in a dark room filled with Christ knows how many people, and terrified every minute, hour, day, and possibly years to come.”

But the initial report was wrong. Emily’s remains were not found, and later she was seen in security footage, being loaded into the bed of a terrorist truck with Hila and Raaya Rotem, and driven away. Thomas’ worst fear had come true: Emily was one of the hostages. But at the same time, he had been given hope again. Emily might come back home.

Time passed. Thomas and his adult children campaigned for the release of the hostages. They flew to London and Ireland and gave interviews. Emily turned 9 years old in the tunnels of Hamas, but she had no idea it was her birthday.

Then, after eight long weeks, a ceasefire was negotiated and an agreement was reached for some of the hostages to be freed. Emily was on the list but didn’t come home the first day. But finally, on November 25, after 49 days of captivity, Emily Hand was released into the embrace of her father.

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I will never forget sitting in front of the tv, every evening of the ceasefire, desperately tired but refusing to go to bed until I knew who was coming home that day, and until I had seen them escorted into Israel by the Red Cross, and reunited with their family. The tears I cried every evening, happy tears but also tears of sadness, for those who didn’t come home, and those who would never come back again. Seeing Emily run to her father, and seeing Thomas’ smile, was everything. It healed something in me.

Emily was released together with her friend, Hila Rotem. The girls had clung together in the long weeks of captivity, under the care of Hila’s mother, Raaya. Raaya was not released that day, but fortunately, a few days later, she was. There was no rhyme or reason for that, apart from Hamas’ psychological warfare tactics – breaking up families and putting them through mental anguish is their favourite thing to do. Apart from causing death and destruction. They are Death Eaters.

This picture shows Emily and Hila walking hand in hand to the Red Cross ambulance, flanked by armed and hooded terrorists.

Emily had gone through hell and come back from it. But her pain is not over. Far from it. First, she had to be told that Narkis Hand, her second mother, was dead.

Narkis Hand was 54 years old when she was killed. She was described as a kind and generous person and a wonderful mother. She loved dancing and travelling and was the centre of her blended family. She leaves a gaping hole in her community.

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Since Emily has been back, she has told her family bits and pieces about her experience in the tunnels of Gaza – a place she calls “the box”. There was no sense of time in the darkness. She thought she had been there for a year. She thought her father had been kidnapped as well and was held somewhere else. She had lost weight and was very pale. And she whispered. The children had been threatened and told to be quiet, so she only spoke in whispers. She had learned how to say “be quiet!” in Arabic. She cries at night, for her stepmother, for her friends, for the trauma she went through. But she is alive, she is safe, and she will be ok again.

The Irish Prime Minister described Emily as a child “lost and found” – an unfortunate choice of words, that doesn’t even begin to describe the reality of what Emily went through. She was stolen in the middle of a massacre, abducted and held hostage underground for 49 days, then finally released under immense pressure. This could have been me, my child, or any of my friends. By pure chance of geography, it was not. But Emily and Thomas are forever etched onto my heart.

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The Green Prince

I want you to meet Mosab Hassan Yousef, also known as “The Green Prince”. He is the son of one of the founders of Hamas. His story is incredible and what he has to say is hugely important. He has been very vocal in denouncing Hamas and supporting Israel for years. To me, he is a fascinating person. His sharp intellect and his courage are remarkable, and we can learn so much from his insights. If we choose to listen, and not turn the other way, because we don’t like the picture he is painting.

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Mosab Hassan Yousef was born in the West Bank in 1978. While growing up, his ambition was to become a “freedom fighter”, as so many Palestinian children’s was. But his life went differently. After witnessing the cruelty, brutality and terror that Hamas subjected their OWN people to, he started thinking differently. He became an informant for the Israeli intelligence.

Over the years, he has prevented countless suicide and terror attacks, earning himself the nickname “the Green Prince” (the colour of the Palestinian flag and his status as the son of a sheikh). Many of us owe him our lives and we don’t even know it. Jews, Israeli Arabs, foreign workers, tourists – everyone. Hamas does not distinguish. Their goal is to eradicate the state of Israel, kill every single Jew on the planet and then establish the Islamic State. They will use any means necessary, including using their own people as a human shield.

We know this because Yousef, and other people like him, told us, again and again. Yousef wrote a book, “Son of Hamas”, and a documentary was made about him: “The Green Prince”. Now, he is raising his voice again to tell the international community what we already know. He is putting himself in extreme danger to say these things. Hamas wants his blood like they want ours. He now lives in the USA, for his own safety.

This is an interview with Mosab Hassan Yousef by Piers Morgan, on October 26, 2023.

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It’s not just Youssef’s sharpness and his bravery that impress me. It is his humanity. He is driven by his love for the Palestinian people. He wants to see them free and in peace. Free from Hamas’ reign of terror. He wants to say his truth, and say it loudly. Listen to him.

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I agree with him. Hamas cannot be forgiven for what they did to us on October 7. We can never forget, and never forgive. They must be destroyed. Not only for us, but for the entire world. As Mosab Hassan Yousef says: “If Israel fails in Gaza, all of us will be next.”