Erez Crossing Reopening

A few months ago, I got to lead a barbecue for our brave soldiers in Erez Crossing, a terminal and an army base that Hamas blew up and invaded in the early minutes of October 7th. We had injuries, hostages kidnapped, and murders on that base.

After the barbecue, the soldiers were nice enough to give us a tour of the terminal and base. The terminal was used for 15,000 Palestinians to come into Israel every day, for medical treatment and work. Some of the residents of the Kibbutzim nearby that were massacred actually drove these Palestinians to the hospitals for treatment. These "innocent" Palestinians were so grateful to these peace-loving Israelis, that they gave maps to Hamas, which showed how many people lived in which houses, who was armed, names and job titles of the residents. 

I stood there among the broken ceilings and shattered glass of a once beautiful terminal, full of hope and peace, surrounded by obvious evidence of smashing, gunshots, and bombs. I thought to myself about how symbolic it is that Hamas blew through the biggest terminal that was meant to be helpful to the Palestinians, who they simply do not care about. How it is the literal Mashal of biting off the hand that feeds you(r people). And how I hoped that the terminal was never opened again, or at least until some serious changes on their side. Never could I have imagined that it would reopen, so soon, with the reason being that we need to help their side.

And so, when I saw the news yesterday that Erez Crossing has been reopened to send humanitarian aid through, that felt like a poke in the eye, in all of our eyes. The humanitarian aid (which shouldn't be going at all until AT LEAST all 134 of our hostages are back), should not be going through there. How can we be giving them any reward directly from one of the places they blew through on their mission to hunt, kill, kidnap, rape, and mutilate us?

Where are the consequences of their actions? Why are our leaders behaving so weakly towards these terrorists and terrorist supporters? Something needs to change, quickly. 

(Note: Something has needed to change for a while - see the fact that the Gazans are now at the beach while our Northern residents are still refugees, but this news tidbit set me off because of the symbolism and because of my personal experience there.)