Here Lived
Irit Lahav and her daughter, Lotus, lived in this home with their dog, Bon Bon.
Lotus lived in Jaffa, and every weekend came to visit her mother.
October 7th
On the Saturday of October 7, they were supposed to be in Binyamina, but they changed their minds at the last moment. On Friday evening they returned to the kibbutz, and Lotus went to visit friends until 3:30 early in the morning. On October 7, they woke up at 6:29 a.m. to the sirens and ran into the safe room in their pajamas. They managed to bring their dog Bon Bon into the safe room.
It didn’t take them long to realize that terrorists had infiltrated the kibbutz and they improvised a lock on the door of the safe room from an oar and a vacuum-cleaner hose. They turned off the lights and hid silently under the table, behind a wall of books. That is how they remained for eleven-and-a-half hours, in deadly fear. The terrorists entered their home five times, but they couldn’t break the improvised lock. They destroyed and looted everything they could lay their hands on. At 6:00 p.m., naval commandos arrived to rescue them.
What Happened Since
At present, Irit lives on the fifth floor of a building in Kiryat Gat, far from her beloved land. Lotus lives in Jerusalem and studies at Bezalel art school.
