Israeli nonprofit 'Brothers in Arms' renovates homes damaged from last year's Oct 7 Hamas terror attack

The unprecedented Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas last year resulted in massive material damage to dozens of southern Israel communities that border the Gaza Strip.

Despite promises from the Israeli government to rebuild those communities, most damaged buildings remain unchanged after more than a year since the deaths, abductions and atrocities took place.

Now, Brothers in Arms, an Israeli nonprofit organization, has taken it upon itself to fully renovate Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the most devastated residential communities.

Before Oct 7, 2023, Omri Ronen (32), who was also from the kibbutz, used to visit his grandparents. On the day of the mass terror attack, which Israelis refer to as "the Black Shabbat," Hamas terrorists murdered his widowed 86-year-old grandmother and her Filipina caregiver.

Ronen, a member of an IDF special reserve unit, returned to Kibbutz Aza with his father after nearly 200 days of fighting terrorists. He was stunned to find that none of the destroyed houses had been rebuilt.

In his grandmother’s ruined home, one of the Hamas attackers had scrawled a message in Arabic: “You will die here. You won’t remain here.” This chilling statement spurred Ronen to take action to improve the situation.

“Not only aren’t we dead, we are alive and are here to stay,” Ronen said in an interview with The Times of Israel.

Ronen, a member of Brothers in Arms, consulted with the kibbutz leaders, who ultimately approved his proposal to undertake a project to fully renovate 16 buildings damaged by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7

“I wanted the young people’s area renovated first because the young people are the life of the kibbutz,” Ronen said. “The kibbutz was the life project of my grandfather and grandmother, which is why I’m so determined to continue it.”

When Brothers in Arms called for volunteers for the project, he said nearly 6,000 people responded.

“Brothers in Arms have been with me from the start. They are the best people there are,” Ronen said during the interview. “We’re in a new situation. The state doesn’t know how to cope. Brothers in Arms knows how to organize and get things done. Everyone is volunteering. Even the materials are donated.”

The ambitious renovation project is scheduled to be completed by Hannukah in December and Ronen is hoping that 16 young people will be able to move back to the kibbutz on Christmas Eve (Dec. 25).

While he is currently focusing on the reconstruction of homes in the southern community where his grandparents lived, he eventually wants to assist in rebuilding damaged buildings in northern Israeli communities, which have been destroyed as a result of the Hezbollah terror group's attacks from Lebanon.

“I don’t think we need to wait for the State of Israel,” Ronen said. “People are lining up. They want to give. It helps build resilience and takes them out of hopelessness to Zionist work. They’re excited to come.”

“The message is that they broke us, but we will build back better and more beautifully and stand up to terror. We are here to stay,” Ronen vowed.

On Oct. 7, the first anniversary of the Hamas massacre, displaced residents of Kfar Aza returned to the devastated kibbutz and criticized the Israeli government for being too slow in rebuilding it.

“How can I trust the government who abandoned me here, who betrayed me, promised me that my family was safe here?” one resident, Liora Eilon, said.