Here Lived
In this home lived Tom Engel. Tom, 21 years old at the time of the event, is the oldest son of Karina Engelbert and Ronen Engel, z”l. His family left Kibbutz Elipaz in the Arava and moved to Nir Oz when Tom was a toddler, and he immediately became a Nir-Oz kid. Tom loved to wander barefoot around the kibbutz with his friends, go out to the fields, and mess around on the grass. In 2020, he graduated from the Nofei HaBesor high school, and enlisted in the army, to the “Kfir” Unit.
October 7th
On that terrible Shabbat, Tom was serving his last weekend of his army service. He had been assigned to guard settlements in Judea and Samaria, next to the village of Huwara, and thus survived the massacre.
His parents, Karina and Ronen, and his sisters, Mika and Yuval, were on the kibbutz at the time of the massacre. Ronen, his father, left the house with his personal handgun to protect the kibbutz, was shot and murdered, and his body was abducted to the Gaza strip.
His mother, Karina, who followed him to protect her daughters, struggled with the terrorists and was kidnapped to the strip, separated from her two daughters. They too were kidnapped after her and were wounded as a result of a combat chopper shooting the cart on which they were taken on. They stayed in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where they were united with their mother. They were released after 52 days in captivity. Tom’s father, Ronen, is still being held in Gaza as of this writing.
What Happened Since
Immediately after the massacre, Tom joined the Nir Oz community in Eilat, and from there moved to Karme Gat, where he shared an apartment with other youths. As of today, Tom lives in Tel Aviv, after he fulfilled his dream to travel in South America and the USA.
