Three Years After October 7: Sha'ar HaNegev Head Reflects on Kfar Aza Massacre
Three years after October 7, Sha'ar HaNegev Council head Uri Epstein reflects on the Kfar Aza massacre, the loss of five family members, and the urgent need to rebuild trust and security.
Three years after the October 7 massacre, Uri Epstein, head of the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council, reflected on the harrowing hours in Kfar Aza where he lost five family members. In an interview on 103fm with Anat Davidov, he discussed the shattered trust in the state and the military, detailing what is required for residents to rebuild their lives in the region.
The Morning of October 7
Epstein recalled the morning of October 7 and his initial feelings during those terrifying hours. "At 6:29 AM I am at home, completely surprised, on a peaceful Simchat Torah holiday after returning late from a full family gathering. Then more Red Alert sirens go off, an endless barrage, and then gunfire is heard. We realize this is something different; we had never heard machine-gun fire before and we understood. We see the volumes of fire and it is clearly a war. We hear the explosion beyond the wall, the wall shakes, and we understand this is something else. It is something different from anything we could have imagined before."
He added, "I am with my wife and our youngest daughter, Alma. My parents are in their home, also in the kibbutz. Netav is in the Young Generation neighborhood together with his beloved and fiancée. My sister Vered and Ofir together with their children are near our house. Everyone is there. When we realize this is something different from anything we know, I immediately call everyone and tell them this is something completely different, do not behave as we normally do, you must stay inside the safe room even after a Red Alert passes, and lock the door."
The Loss of Family
Epstein shared the horrifying moments when tragedy struck his family. "I receive a phone call from my father, and I understand there is a problem with my mother, who is not answering him and has fallen. I tell him: I am coming to you to help. My wife tells me stay here with Alma, because we thought it was a medical issue and they are elderly people. After five minutes she calls me and tells me: Terrorists shot your mother. I do not see terrorists at this stage, I hear gunfire from every possible direction. I served 25 years in the army and in all my military service I never heard so much incessant gunfire. I asked myself: Do they not run out of ammunition?"
He later described the heartbreaking communication with his late son Netav, who was murdered in the kibbutz during the attack. "I am in communication with him all the time, first in calls and then, because terrorists can be heard, we switch to messaging. Later, after I go out to look for Ofir because I understand he might be wounded and perhaps can be saved, I find his body together with his eldest son. I think things couldn't get worse than this. At 11:30 he writes to me 'Dad, they broke my door—they are inside.' Later, at 11:36, Iran, his fiancée, writes to me that he is dead. I did not ask how he died or what. The mission is to evacuate Iran. Hours pass, my nephew is badly wounded. At this stage Iran is evacuated, we enter the night, and 12-year-old Alma, my youngest daughter, tells me we don't need to leave the safe room while I am making phone calls. At that stage it was a punch to the stomach. I failed to protect her from the terrible truth, so I decided to share everything with her so she would hear it from me.
"The trust was shattered to pieces on October 7, and it must be restored. The restoration of trust must come through clarifying the truth. The way to do that is an objective commission of inquiry."
Rebuilding and the Need for State Support
Addressing the sense of abandonment on that day, Epstein noted, "I hear IDF gunfire only in the afternoon in my area. Soldiers had already been killed in the morning hours. In my area inside the kibbutz I do not hear an IDF force, and we enter the night. And I tell Alma: 'It is not over and at any moment terrorists can enter and murder us, but I promise you I have a good reason to live and that we will live full lives.' This commitment became a mission and an obligation. It turned into dedication."
Detailing the community's reconstruction, Epstein said: "Rehabilitation is progressing; some communities have returned and some have not yet returned. There is both physical rehabilitation and mental rehabilitation. The big question will not be what we rehabilitate, but what we build. What kind of life we build afterward. Rehabilitation is not enough. Anyone who experienced October 7 will remain with this trauma and it will accompany them. I don't tell anyone how safe it is here and how much one can sleep in peace, people need to know the truth, the truth is one of the most important things. The IDF is inside the Gaza Strip despite threats, we were told Hamas was defeated and we are a step away from total victory, but threats remain. Our security situation is better than it was on the eve of October 7."
Concluding, he outlined what residents need from the state: "The residents, in order to build their lives here, need to feel there is security here and they also need to feel that trust is being restored. The state must give residents two things: alongside security, it must give them long-term certainty, stability, continuity in treatments, budgets, the ability to guarantee treatments here over time, and this will take years. It must restore trust. We are doing the rest, we are building neighborhoods here, developing the economy, industry, building the best education system possible. A person needs meaning for why they live here, alongside security, certainty, and the ability to build the future here."
