Israel, Day #2: Dekel Lifshez

The grandson of two people taken from Nir Oz Kibbutz tells the story of their survival, death, and resurrection

Dekel Lifshez was in Australia when he heard on the radio about a “heavy missile attack” from Gaza. Which, he says, “was nothing really exciting for Israel, another one of ‘these’ days.'“

But it wasn’t. It was October 7, and soon, Dekel, 24, and his family were getting word from his grandfather Oded, 83, and his grandmother Yocheved, 85, that their kibbutz was under attack, terrorists were working their way in; Oded, in his underwear, holding the door closed until he was shot through the hand. As he bled out on the floor, Yocheved was loaded onto a motorbike between two captors and taken to Gaza.

Dekel tells me the story of his grandmother being marched into the tunnels, the family hearing nothing… until three weeks later, when she was led back into the light, with the terrible news that, her husband was dead.

Or was he?

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