British-Israeli from Kibbutz Be’eri hoping for normality in 2024 following massacre
Simon King, 59, relocated to Kibbutz Be’eri in 1984, where he lived with his wife, Zehavit King, 51, and his two sons aged 13 and 14, and worked as a landscape gardener.
A British-Israeli has said he is hoping for life to “go back to normal” in 2024 following a year which he described in just one word – a “massacre”.
Simon King, 59, relocated to Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel in 1984, where he lived with his wife, Zehavit King, 51, and his two sons aged 13 and 14, and worked as a landscape gardener.
Mr King and his family members were evacuated to a hotel on the Dead Sea following the Hamas attacks, which left him, his wife and one of his sons trapped in their safe room for 36 hours until they were freed by Israeli forces.
Following their evacuation, Mr King said he returns to the kibbutz every day to help with the clean-up process so those who come to visit can “see what happened with their own eyes”.
Mr King said his hopes for 2024 include moving out of the hotel and into his own house and for his family to return to their normal routines.
It comes as the conflict enters its third month after Hamas gunmen stormed the Israeli border, killing 1,200 people and taking some 240 hostages.
More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war to destroy Hamas and more than 53,000 have been wounded, according to health officials in Gaza.
Reflecting on the last few months, Mr King, originally from Worcestershire, told the PA news agency: “We’ve all gone through a massacre.
“It’s not just terrorists going into the kibbutz and shooting you, they had knives and they raped and they cut bodies up.
“They raped young girls and men.
“We’ve gone through a very traumatic time.
“My end hope is that I’ll be able to move back to my house and continue a normal life.”
Mr King said it has been “frustrating” over the last few months as they adjust to living in the hotel.
“Things have been quite frustrating actually,” he said.
“Life in the hotel, going backwards and forwards to Be’eri every day – it takes an hour and a half to get there and an hour and 40 minutes to get back.
“I help clean it up and make it presentable for all the bus loads of people that come to visit and to have tours to see what happened with their own eyes, because it’s quite unbelievable what happened.”
Mr King said most of the “bad scenery” has been cleaned up in the kibbutz, such as cars that had been burnt, trees and bushes that had been knocked down by tanks and bulldozers, and people who had been shot and killed in their vehicles.
Reflecting on October 7, Mr King said he was preparing for a bike ride at around 6.30am when he started to hear rockets being fired.
“It was like a non-stop barrage of rockets,” he said.
“We were told to go immediately into the safe room and lock the doors for further notice because there were terrorists on the kibbutz.
“I then started to hear automatic fire, guns and other explosions.
“It made me feel like I just did a really big bungee jump, that’s the feeling you get in your chest and your heart, or gone down in a roller coaster – it’s a really devastating feeling.”
Mr King said they had electricity in the safe room for the first six hours but it went off due to a power cut for the remainder of the time they were sheltering.
“It was good because in my sitting room, I think I left my TV on, and if any terrorists could see the TV was working it would be like a magnet,” he said.
“We were in there without food or water because we didn’t equip our safe room to be in there for such a long time – it was really awful.”
Mr King said that after 36 hours, soldiers from the Israeli military were able to evacuate them to a nearby town called Netivot, before they travelled to the hotel on the Dead Sea.
His brother, Ben King, also relocated to Israel in 1997 and lived in the same kibbutz with his wife and two children.
The brothers and their family members were reunited at the hotel on the Dead Sea following the evacuation.
Looking ahead to 2024, Mr King said he hopes he and his family members will be able to return to their normal routines.
“My hopes are to get into a house with a couple of bedrooms and a kitchen to do some cooking and not being in a hotel for another year,” Mr King said.
“I hope my children can go back to school and go back to their normal routines of playing football and basketball and I hope my wife goes back to the school in the area to start teaching again.”
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