BGU & YOU | NOVEMBER 2023

remarkably? Because there is not a single aspect of this war that does not affect her personally and intimately. Her study plans were disrupted, her family scattered across the country after the village she grew up in was evacuated, her partner and two brothers were called up for reserve duty and there were numerous victims among her circle of friends. It is only by chance that Ester’s partner, Ben Shultz, also a BGU student, chose to go to a nature party in the Arava on October 7 and not the one that turned so deadly near Reim. On October 7, Ester was woken by increasingly worried phone calls from family and friends at the apartment she shares with Ben in Beer-Sheva. She managed to reach her parents and siblings who live in Mavki’im, a moshav 7.2 kilometers from the northern border of Gaza. For now, they were alright. Her friend Alon Amir, another BGU student who is from Kfar Azza, came over to her apartment to try and make sense of the calls and messages they were getting: of terrorists in the streets, families and friends huddling in their secure rooms. They were still together at 4 pm that day when Alon found out his father had been murdered protecting his sisters and a niece. He had put the girls in the shower in the secure room, but stayed in the outer room himself, figuring, tragically and correctly, as it turned out, that once the

Ester and Ben had a few hours during a brief leave, Oct. 15, 2023. Photo: Courtesy

Upended

terrorists discovered him, they would shoot him but move on thinking he was alone. Ben returned from the nature party in the Arava with Nave Avraham, another student, during the day. Nave’s mother survived by hiding in their secure room in Nahal Oz. By the time they fell asleep, exhausted at 3 AM, Ben had already gotten his call to report for duty.

Ester and Ben drove to his parents in Kiryat Ono near Tel Aviv and from there to an induction center where he was kitted out and headed north, where he is now serving as an engineering officer. For now, Ester is staying with Ben’s parents in Kiryat Ono because her and Ben’s apartment in Beer-Sheva does not have a secure room and she does not feel safe staying there alone. Ester’s village, Mavki'im, has been largely evacuated. Her parents are in Eilat with her youngest brother . A sister-

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STRONG AND UNITED WE WILL PREVAIL