Emergency Appeal

On the morning of 7th October, Ziv Aviv went to the kibbutz gate to do a security check. He was the military security coordinator for Kibbutz Gevim, near the Gaza border, and this was part of his usual Saturday-morning routine.

As he was standing alone behind the entrance gate, a white pickup truck approached and dozens of terrorists emerged from it.

Ziv fought them in a heroic solo gunfire battle. “Throughout the fighting, I prayed to God,” he says. “I had one goal in my mind: my duty to protect my 11-month-old grandson, who was sleeping in his home on the kibbutz.”

The 56 year old singlehandedly held off the terrorists, until the alert squad arrived to join the fight. Though he was hit by two shots in the legs, shattering his knees, he successfully prevented the terrorists from entering the kibbutz – thus saving all the residents.

Ziv now has to undergo rigorous rehabilitation work on his legs twice a week, which he says helps him both physically and emotionally, “because the attack was devastating” but it interrupts his work.

As part of his rehabilitation, Ziv received an immediate grant through our partners at the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) and their Fund for the Victims of Terror (FVOT). He also received a grant for an exercise bike, customised to his disability, that will help him on his journey to recovery. FVOT will continue to support Ziv over the next three years.

The support made available to Ziv was made possible due to UJIA’s support of JAFI and the FVOT.

Mika and Galia did not expect their new school would care what they did while they were there.

The two teenagers were evacuated from Kibbutz Erez to the desert town of Mitzpe Ramon on 8th October. More than 16,000 children and young people have been displaced since 7th October, away from their schools, their playgrounds and everything that was familiar to them.

Along with other students from their kibbutz, Mika and Galia enrolled in one of the additional classes set up by our partners on the ground, to allow displaced children to be educated in an existing high school.

“It’s hard to go to school during a war,” Mika and Galia said, in a speech to the school community. “I thought I was going to come to a school that wouldn’t expect me, as an evacuee, to invest a lot, and that would let me do whatever I wanted.

“But we felt that the teachers understood us and didn’t treat us as poor pitied evacuees. We felt we belonged – which is a feeling we did not expect to have here.”

They added that their teacher, Noa, helped them to adjust: they were able to approach her for anything, knowing that she would support them with sensitivity.

“We had to leave our kibbutz and live in a place far from everything we know and everything we’re used to,” Mika and Galia said. “It’s hard to imagine what we would have done without this unique school.”

UJIA’s funding was vital in setting up and running pop-up schools

On 7th October, Batya* thought her baby was going to die.

Batya’s 15-month-old daughter suffers from a rare genetic malformity of the brain that requires daily medication. But on 7th October, all the clinics in Ashkelon, where Batya lives with her husband and five children, suddenly closed.

13 kilometres from the Gaza border, Ashkelon was being pounded by heavy rocket fire. But all 34-year-old Batya could think about was the need to find the medicine that would keep her baby alive.

Eventually, she found a hospital in northern Tel Aviv that could supply her with her daughter’s medication. While the rocket attacks continued, she and her family left their home and travelled to Tel Aviv, and the seven of them moved into a one-bedroom apartment near the hospital.

In Tel Aviv, the family had nothing. As well as taking care of her daughter, Batya also had to occupy and educate her four older children. “Household expenses – all the loans and cuts. It’s truly not an easy time for any of us,” she said.

They were therefore reliant on volunteers from Pitchon Lev who – with a grant from UJIA – delivered essential supplies, including food baskets, baby formula, nappies and baby wipes.

This support continues today, alleviating the financial burden that Batya and her family would otherwise be carrying. The support given to her by Pitchon-Lev and UJIA, she says, has helped her to feel hopeful about the future again.

*Not her real name