Omri Shefroni, who lost four family members in the Kibbutz Be’eri massacre on October 7, spent 12 harrowing hours locked in a safe room with his family as Hamas terrorists roamed their living room.
On Sunday morning, in an emotional interview with Ynet, he shared that, for the first time since that traumatic day, he took his five-year-old daughter, Arbel, back to his parents’ house in the kibbutz—and to the closet where she had hidden.
"We feared this moment for a long time, but we realized it was essential to help her process the experience. It was an emotional and difficult visit," he said.
“She doesn’t remember much,” Shefroni explained, “but she does remember being in the closet. That’s where we hid her and her two cousins as we waited for rescue, knowing it wouldn’t come quickly, with the terrorists just outside the safe room door. They even shot at the door, and two bullets penetrated it.”
Despite the terror surrounding them, he added, “She felt safe there, as far as we can understand. The anxiety, fear and helplessness we felt are impossible to put into words—there’s nothing rational about that situation.”
Shefroni explained that the decision to revisit the house came after extensive consultations with Arbel’s therapist and psychologists. “Part of the process,” he said, “is ensuring her emotions and memories surface in a positive and constructive way, rather than haunting her mind and soul, while also ensuring she doesn’t suppress them. That was the intention. Arbel doesn’t remember much, but there are details etched in her memory that are slowly emerging.”
Shefroni also addressed recent reports about progress in negotiations for a hostage release deal, which is expected to unfold in stages. “There are still hostages from Be’eri in Gaza. I deeply hope the deal everyone is discussing will come to fruition and include all of them.”
He added, “There’s an ongoing effort to make people forget that we were left completely alone during the attack, abandoned, with no one truly taking responsibility for what happened—except for some incredible civilians, who stepped up on October 7, and they continue to bear that responsibility even now.”
Shefroni spoke about his work with the “Kumu” movement, which he co-founded alongside Yonatan Shamriz and other partners. “We’re working to create a new reality here, one that reflects the strength of our people and the citizens of this country, showing that real change is possible,” he said.
Yonatan’s brother, Alon Shamriz, was kidnapped on October 7 and tragically killed by the IDF in Shijaiyah alongside Yotam Chaim and Samer Talalka.
When asked about Defense Minister Israel Katz's deadline for IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi to complete investigations into the massacre by next month, Shefroni responded, “The defense minister is right. I personally fought to ensure these investigations would take place, but he’s ignoring the other side of the equation—political leadership holds significant and equal responsibility alongside the military.
“The IDF failed completely that day, and any Knesset member or minister who says so is correct. But they cannot absolve themselves of responsibility either. What we’re seeing is a total failure of leadership, and it’s been ongoing for over a year. Yes, we unequivocally expect a state commission of inquiry. That is the only way to truly examine these events.”
A lifelong resident of Kibbutz Be’eri, now living in Givat Haviva in the Menashe Regional Council, Shefroni shared his longing to return. “I visited on that Shabbat. My entire family lived there. Since then, I’ve felt a strong pull to go back. I hope we’ll make it happen, but I can’t promise. Arbel and her brother Maayan have lives and friends elsewhere, and these decisions are not simple. But I want to return, and Be’eri will undoubtedly recover. It will happen—though only after the hostages from Be’eri and the others are brought back. Without them, neither the kibbutz, the state, nor anything else here can truly heal.”
Blast from the past
Shefroni wrote on social media about his first visit with Arbel to the house where they had hidden during the massacre. “She was four years and one month old when we hid her in the closet to protect her from the terrorists who were roaming our living room. Luckily, they didn’t try to open the door, though two bullets pierced through it like a hot knife through butter. If they had, we wouldn’t be here today.”
Reflecting on the experience, he said, “The moments of terror and helplessness are deeply burned into my soul, resurfacing every time I look at my children and realize that I’m the only one who can protect them—and that I won’t always be able to.”
Shefroni also described the horrifying scenes during their evacuation from Be’eri at first light on October 8. “As we drove along Route 232—the ‘Road of Blood’—we passed dozens of burned vehicles and bodies scattered around them. Someone had hung signs reading, ‘The Road of Abandonment 7/10.’ Elsewhere, someone had gone out of their way to stop at each sign and erase the words. Maybe they thought erasing them would make us forget, but we won’t. The abandonment cannot be erased.”
He added, “In the safe room where we hid, across from the closet where we concealed the children, my father hung three photos: Dror, who was five and a half when my older brother, Sagi, fled a burning house with her and hid her outside from the terrorists behind laundry baskets; my younger brother Ron being evacuated from the safe room with his partner and their eight-month-old son, Hillel, escorted by soldiers; and one of Arbel and me in the armored vehicle early Sunday morning, freezing because the soldiers had turned the air conditioning to full blast. She remembers we rode in an ‘ice bus.’”
Hope for the future
Shefroni concluded, “We brought her back to Be’eri for the first time in over a year so she could see Be’eri still stands. That her grandfather’s house has been repaired and still exists. That there is no longer war or terrorists there. Be’eri stands, and it will continue to stand and rebuild. Its resilient people are rebuilding it and will keep doing so, but they will never forget. They are still waiting for their friends, the hostages, to return.”
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“I swore to always protect Arbel—not just from forgetting, but also from remembering. I will rebuild this country for her if needed, so she will never have to feel the fear we felt that day, and so she can grow up in a safe home, a place worthy of raising children.”