Pitchon-Lev: Helping those in need in time of war

Assistance to evacuated families – residents of Israel’s southern and northern communities – does not end with the delivery of a food basket. The current state of war has brought about many challenges that must be addressed.

There are bereaved families, family members who were kidnapped, thousands of residents of the south whose homes were burned, hundreds of thousands of citizens who evacuated from their homes, and those left destitute overnight. All of these need to be dealt with on a broader level. Many days passed before the State of Israel succeeded in establishing a partial response, which did not include all of the citizens in distress, and the government is still having difficulty meeting everyone’s needs.

The first to act were the civilian aid organizations that filled the gap, among them being  Pitchon-Lev, which, from the first day of the fighting, along with its quick and immediate response providing food baskets and humanitarian supplies, was called upon for various requests for assistance and for meeting unique needs. While residents of the Gaza envelope and communities close to the border were evacuated in the first days, many residents of the south, whose towns were within range of the rockets, remained in communities that had become ghost towns with no civilian services.

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A day after that Black Shabbat,  34-year-old Betty Mizrahi from Ashkelon made her way with her husband and five children, including a 9-month-old baby, from Ashkelon to central Tel Aviv. On the way, the family managed to pass through north Tel Aviv in order to obtain the medicines for their daughter, who has a rare disease.

“It all started on Shabbat, October 7, when I knew that the next day, I was supposed to come and get medications for my daughter, which are necessary for her to live.  The clinics here were closed, and we couldn’t get them. No one had anything except in North Tel Aviv. Ashkelon these days is closed,” she says. 

Betty’s baby daughter is dealing with a rare disease that was diagnosed when she was two months old, and causes seizures and death if she does not receive treatment. “Coping is very difficult, whether it’s the trips to the hospitals, tests, or getting the drugs. Everything is very difficult and very complex right now. Taking care of a child in wartime who requires constant care is challenging. It’s exhausting, and it requires strength.”

Betty and her family met Pitchon-Lev volunteers at a hostel in Tel Aviv, who arrived loaded with boxes of baby food and diapers for their toddler daughter, food baskets, and toiletries for the entire family. “We will continue to be strong, and we will win because of our unity,” Betty says. “I thank Pitchon-Lev for the support and all the good things we received. May they be blessed  blessing times over in return for what they have given. They are the best.”

Betty’s story occurs in many families who find themselves in situations of uncertainty. Some try to bring order out of chaos, to feel a bit of normalcy in the uncertain situation they are facing.

Since the beginning of the war, the community of Kibbutz Erez, which was situated near the border fence and has now been declared a closed military zone, has taken refuge in Mitzpe Ramon. Four hundred residents, some 80% of the community’s members, are trying to bring a routine into the difficult, completely unusual reality they have found themselves in since that Saturday of October 7.

“From the very first moment, we evacuated and didn’t wait. We all drove to Mitzpe Ramon, and we are concentrated in several locations in the community,” says Hila Peretz Biton, a member of the kibbutz. “We quickly realized that we needed to prepare for an emergency routine from the place of survival that we have been.

“We realized that we also need to create an environment for our toddlers that is as natural as possible, one to which they are accustomed. The need arose to try and get baby carts that they are familiar with, that we used to use to push them around when we were on the kibbutz,” says Hila, who adds that “alongside the small and embracing space, the toddlers needed a large space to go outside.”

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Hila appealed for assistance to MK Yasmin Sacks-Friedman, a member of the Knesset Members Operations Room, which works with the Pitchon-Lev organization. The MK turned to the organization’s CEO, Eli Cohen, and within two days, the carts had already reached Hila.

In the first week of the fighting, 88 Knesset members – with an impressive and unusual amount of cross-party and political cooperation – came together and sent an official letter to the Knesset’s Legal Advisor, requesting that they work with Pitchon-Lev to collect the donations they would raise.  This was in response to the many requests for assistance that reach their desks, since members of Knesset may not raise funds for independent activity. For the first time since the founding of the state 75 years ago, the Knesset Legal Advisor approved the request. Since then, the requests for assistance and donations have been forwarded to Pitchon-Lev, which purchases products, packs them, and transports them to those who submitted the request for assistance. This is how Pitchon-Lev and Knesset members responded to Hila’s request and that of the Erez community.

“Although it may sound like a small thing, from the moment the baby carts arrived, it completely changed the difficult reality of our toddlers. We are all grateful to Pitchon-Lev and MK Sacks-Friedman. It is really touching,” Hila concludes. 

As part of the individual assistance that Pitchon-Lev is currently providing, they are also assisting through the “Zechut B’Kalut” service in cooperation with the National Insurance Institute Fund, which provides personal assistance and professional case management by phone to all Israeli citizens in exercising their rights in a variety of subjects at no cost, even in exercising their rights in matters of war. However, sometimes calls come to the hotline that are not within the framework of the rights granted by the State. Despite this, Pitchon-Lev refuses to give up on obtaining assistance.

Such was the appeal that came from Avi (Albert) Shariki, who is dealing with shell shock after taking part in the fighting at the Mount Hermon outpost in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War, which claimed the lives of dozens of his comrades who were killed alongside him.

Shariki, who lives in Ashdod, was once again exposed to sirens, missile explosions, and shelling that brought him back to that day. “Missiles fell near my house, and every piece of shrapnel that falls nearby makes me afraid that it will harm my family. My mental state deteriorates greatly, I lose my temper, and sometimes I even shake as a result.

Fifty years have passed since then, but the shock of the battle remains.”

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Avi felt that he had to escape the reality of the war in Ashdod, even for a few days, but as a resident of Ashdod, he was not entitled to an evacuation from the city paid by the state. In a final attempt, he turned to Pitchon-Lev and the “Zechut B’Kalut” hotline. The organization immediately joined in and assisted him and his wife by providing a few days of rest at a hotel in Tel Aviv. “I called the “Zechut B’Kalut” hotline, and on very short notice, a lovely case manager named Bat Zion got back to me. Everything was handled efficiently, from the moment we spoke until they got back to us one more time, and here we are in the hotel. There is good food, and finally, a good night’s sleep. For the past month, it’s been difficult to deal with the situation, and I’ve been tense. But here I’m calmer,” says Avi.

Alongside the constant supplies that Pitchon-Lev provides to families in the north and south and the individual assistance wherever possible, there was a particularly moving moment when the organization surprised 16-year-old

Alon Shoham, a resident of Netiv HaAsara, by bringing players from Hapoel Tel Aviv’s soccer team – which he has been a fan of since childhood – to his home.

On October 7, Alon hid in a closet under the staircase for hours with his mother Einat and brother Tomer, when terrorists passed between the neighbors’ houses and murdered them. “The family has lived in Netiv HaAsara for many years with all the siblings and extended family,” says Shuki, his father. “I was in Ireland that Saturday. I woke up in the morning and saw that there were sirens in Israel. I called, and there was no answer, and then I got a message from my daughter that they were hiding and there were terrorists in the moshav.”

After some time, the terrorists also entered the family’s home and banged on the walls with their weapons to see if anyone was hiding in the house. “They started opening doors to see if there was someone who could be murdered.

Everyone was silent – not even the dog barked. Luckily, the safe room door was open, so they thought there was no one in the house, and they left,” says Shuki, who lost many friends and acquaintances in the murders on the kibbutz.

Pitchon-Lev surprised Shoham at his home when they brought the Hapoel Tel Aviv soccer players, who gave Alon a shirt and sat down to talk to the family. It was a small moment of excitement which brought smiles in the midst of the difficult struggle. 

This article was written in cooperation with Pitchon-Lev. Pitchon Lev accepts donations from outside Israel as well. .

Since the beginning of the war, Pitchon-Lev has been one of the organizations standing at the forefront of the Israeli home front, in addition to continuing to assist people in need in breaking the cycle of poverty.

>>> To learn more and donate to Pitchon-Lev.

Translated by Alan Rosenbaum