This past week I traveled with an incredible volunteer, Ophyr Hanan down to the Gaza Envelop (Oteph Aza) to shadow her as she participated in some incredible work.
But before I go into it, let me back up to give a little context. While so many in Israel are volunteering in organized volunteer efforts such as picking produce or helping at food pantries and donation centers, there are some who are more like "nomadic volunteers". What I mean by this is that they might not be part of an organized group but rather individuals who have taken it upon themselves to help out wherever they can, doing whatever they can.
Ophyr is one of these. Normally, like so many who live in Tel Aviv she works in Tech. but these days she has put her job on hold and 24/7 volunteers...all over. Some days you can find her helping out with hostages or even leading delegations of hostages around the world to put pressure on governments. Other times she is helping in local communities. This time (when I accompanied her) upon the request of some families she was going down to the Kibbutzim around the Gaza area for one day attempting to find small items in destroyed houses to return to the families.
While the above video captures the essence of our trip down south, there was one house that simply didn't make it into the cut. This was due to time and when editing a video like the above it's important not to overstay your welcome (and at 6 minutes, it was already overstaying a bit) but this last house at Nir Oz I found to be striking and powerful on its own. This is in part because those who lived in this house (and who were killed and kidnapped) were artists. And after the fire raged, the only things that remained were some of the artwork. I wanted to share this out take as I think it is worth viewing on it's own.
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