‘Four Houses and Longing’: The Elkabets family's harrowing experience during the Kfar Aza massacre

Four Houses and Longing, a film by Jasmine Kainy, which aired on Monday night on Keshet 12, tells a harrowing and compelling story of one family in four houses scattered across Kfar Aza, a kibbutz near the Gaza border where terrorists murdered more than 50 and took about 20 hostages on October 7.

The film very effectively puts you in the place of the Elkabets family, who had been celebrating the 36th wedding anniversary of the parents, Shimon and Anati Elkabets, the night before. They lived in one house, while their daughter Noa lived in the young people’s neighborhood of the kibbutz, and their daughter Sivan and her boyfriend, Naor Hasidim, were in a third house, and their son, Guy, and his wife and children, in another.

On the morning of the massacre, they might as well have been separated by thousands of miles, although the actual distance among their homes was just a few hundred meters. Following the firing of missiles from Gaza, they soon heard gunshots and communicated with each other by phone. Each house faced a different ordeal, as terrorists entered each one, killing some and giving up on others when they could not easily open doors to the safe rooms.

Another son Nadav, who lives in Mevaseret Zion, was in touch with them from afar and asked his army commanders to send him there right away, but was told he would be given orders soon. Meanwhile, reports of the massacre began to surface, through text messages and news reports. Guided by the texts from his family, he began directing the army to different houses under attack.

THE FAMILY MEMBERS’ concern for each other is touching as they all worry about the others. When they stopped hearing from Sivan at about 11 that morning, she became the focus of their concern. Shimon speaks movingly, more with his eyes than with his words, about wanting to help his daughter, who was so close, yet so far. Anati hoped against hope that her daughter had survived.

They all wondered where the army was, and it took days for the kibbutz to be cleared of terrorists, although some of the survivors were evacuated after about 12 hours.

Shimon, a prominent print and radio journalist, was eventually able to find out some of the details about his daughter’s last moments, as the family learned that she was found dead in a different house.

The film shows a visit by the survivors to Sivan’s home months later, where they discovered a bloodstained apartment that had been trashed, which featured a sign that even in their worst nightmares they never imagined they would see, “Human Remains on the Sofa.” The first responders used such signs to mark the homes where bodies had been found.

Brother and sister in captivity

Most of us will never endure a day like the Elkabets family did, but we can marvel at their courage, resourcefulness, and compassion. This is the latest in a number of extraordinary films made for and aired on Israeli television as news features, some of which have received international recognition.

A film by Yoram Zak, Brother & Sister in Captivity, which was shown on Keshet 12’s investigative newsmagazine program, Uvda, with Ilana Dayan, was nominated for an International Emmy Award last week. It presents an in-depth interview with siblings Maya Regev and Itay Regev, who were both shot and taken hostage by Hamas, and released in the first hostage deal.

Another feature from Uvda which garnered international attention, Ben Shani’s Table for Eight (also known as Abigail), the story of the released hostage four-year-old Abigail Mor Idan, and her family, was nominated for an award at the Monte Carlo International Television Festival.

Prior to the broadcast of Four Houses and Longing on Monday, Keshet 12 News Main Edition presented another shocking feature about October 7, an interview with five soldiers from the Sayeret Ha Nahal, who fought against hundreds of terrorists at Kerem Shalom. They were able to prevent a massacre on Kibbutz Kerem Shalom similar to what happened in Kfar Aza by fighting alongside the members of the kibbutz defense squad. Two of the seven Nahal soldiers fell in battle – First Sergeant Or Mizrahi, from Petah Tikva and Captain Tomer Shoham of Srigim – and the remaining five carried on for hours without backup, eliminating dozens of terrorists.

Sergeant Raz Daher admitted that he expected to be killed. “At some point, I also came to terms with my death. I remember my last conversation with Omer [Alfoar, their contact in the command post]. I told him that if the helicopter doesn’t arrive within two or three minutes, everyone on the way is dead.”

Finally, Alfoar’s pleas for reinforcements were heeded and a helicopter came. As it hovered, the terrorists retreated. After nine hours, the fight was over. “Without the helicopter, we would have been dead,” said Daher.

Why they fought alone for so many hours, and why the Kfar Aza residents were left to face terrorists alone for so long are questions that will be answered eventually, but for now we can only admire the courage of those who fought against unbelievable odds, through watching these accounts.