Ofer Tamir

Mitch Ginsburg: Up until Saturday, this was a working dairy farm right here.

Ofer Tamir: It’s the best dairy farm in Israel. The climate here is amazing. It’s very dry, even it’s hot. But it’s very dry, and it’s good for the cow. And actually this area is the best dairy farmers in the world.

Mishy Harman (narration): Hey listeners, it’s Mishy. So as you know, during these incredibly difficult days, we’re trying to bring you voices we’re hearing among and around us. These aren’t stories, they’re just quick conversations, or postcards really, that try to capture slivers of life right now. We’re obviously not the only ones doing this kind of work. Go to our website, Israelstory.org for a list of other projects collecting wartime stories and testimonies.

In any event, yesterday we heard Moshe Dayan’s eerily relevant 1956 eulogy for Roi Rotberg of Nahal Oz. And today we’re just 15 kilometers south of  Nahal Oz on Kibbutz Kissufim where we spent the day with dairy farmers busy evacuating the local cows. Here’s our producer Mitch Ginsberg.

Mitch Ginsburg: Okay, we’re here in Kibbutz Kissufim alongside the bombed out dairy shed. Outside the fence just a few yards from us are a few motorcycles that were used by the Hamas terrorists who arrived here. And I’m with somebody who has come down to lend a helping hand—very far away from where he lives and very near the Gaza border.

Ofer Tamir: My name is Ofer Tamir from Moshav Nahalal. I’m usually work out of the country. I establish and set up an agricultural project in Ghana, Africa. Now in the Philippines I’m going to build some dairy farm and greenhouse farm.

This war met me when I’m in a vacation, in holiday, in Israel. And I’m not anymore in the age of reserve duty. So we look where we can help to our brother all over the country, of course in the Otef Gaza, around Gaza, or the settlement and the kibbutz and the moshav.

And they asked us to come to support the Kissufim dairy farm because all the team that used to work here in the farm was murdered: killed by Hamas terrorists. So we are here to come and support, and we sending all the cow and heifer to better place that can treat them and give them what they need for better life.

Kissufim is like less than four kilometer from the border— very close. You can see from where we are standing—Gaza—and it’s open field so it’s clear. And when you’re here, you understand what happened here.

So from what we understand, a day they after the attack on Sunday, the farm manager came to check what happened in the farm. So when he enter to his office in the milking parlor, some terrorist wait for him and shoot him. This guy that we see here near us is the manager of the kibbutz. He actually was with him—like few steps behind them, so he survived.

So they call the army, and the army killed the terrorist. But from this moment all the team—it was six Thai people that used to work in the farm—all of them murdered. So nobody here able to treat the cow, to feed them, to milk them—to do all the process at this big farm. It’s about 600 animal here: 380 milking cow and another almost 300 heifer at different stage.

So a lot of good people…from volunteers came and support the farm and yesterday and today we are shipping all the animal from the farm. And like ones that grow in the dairy farm and understand the language of cow, So we are here to support Kissufim.

Mitch Ginsburg: And how’s the work itself? How’s it going?

Ofer Tamir: It’s going well. A lot of people like you see around us. Every day 15-20 people came to support us. And a lot of volunteer want to come and we stopped them because too many people is not the right thing. So it’s run very well.

Mitch Ginsburg: It’s surprising to me that people would risk their lives to come save cows, but how does it feel to you?

Ofer Tamir: Maybe it’s the cow. Yes, of course we care about the cows, they are suffering. But I think it’s something bigger. It’s everybody wants to support here in Israel where he can…something about Israel, how we protect our borders. We aren’t just put soldier in army, we put settlement, we built kibbutz and moshav, and we harvest and cultivate the land until the border. And in this way, I think this is the strategy of Israel in the last 75 years, how to protect Israel. So these people, they pay in blood, and we are here, we must support it and them.

Mitch Ginsburg: Is your sense that the kibbutz will be able to rise back up after this and continue that project? Or are we…is this such a devastating blow that it might not happen?

Ofer Tamir: You know it’s hard to be in the place they are being now. But as I believe, they are strong people, and I don’t think they see other way. We must sit here. We must have our government to support these people, because for now they didn’t get the support that they should get. But it’s looked like nobody will give up the settlement. In one year you will see people running here, and it will be back. I hope. And you know that the life is keeping—20 meter from us people was killed. And we are here with a heavy feeling, but the life must be keep on and this is the reason that we are here—support the people that need now our support.

Mitch Ginsburg: Ofer, why don’t we go over here. I see this is the dairy shed  that was bombed. And then unfortunately, I think this is the area where the manager of the dairy shed was ambushed and killed. I saw before there were even like grenades on the ground here, some Kalashnikov magazines. And, oh man, and what’s this vehicle here that’s turned over? The car is flipped over. The windshield is pockmarked with bullet holes. Ofer has a sort of notebook or diary here.

Ofer Tamir: It’s some notebook that was in the car with some information probably of the farm manager.

Mitch Ginsburg: We should give it to the family…that I guess, okay. Ofer, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Ofer Tamir: Welcome.