‘I don’t think that they’ve ever had this number of reservists respond and report for duty,’ said one volunteer.
When Hamas terrorists attacked Israel with horrifying brutality on Oct. 7, Israelis responded immediately.
The nation counterattacked with plans of finishing Hamas, which rules Gaza, once and for all.
At the time, Israelis were embroiled in demonstrations over the conservative ruling coalition’s plan to take control of the nation’s liberal Supreme Court—they set that aside, for now, to face the new threat.
Nearly every Israeli knows someone who was killed, kidnapped, wounded, raped, or left homeless by Hamas that day. Almost every Israeli family has a son, father, husband, or daughter already on active duty or called up in the reserves.
Reservists living overseas flew home to go to war. So did Israelis no longer under military obligation but wanting to rejoin their comrades.
The ultra-orthodox usually avoid military service by studying at yeshivas. But on Nov. 8, Yanki Deri, the 40-year-old son of Aryeh Deri, the leader of the ultra-orthodox Shas party, enlisted in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
Civilians organized themselves instantly to meet new needs caused by the overnight mobilization of hundreds of thousands of people, usually beating their government to the punch.
“We know we have nowhere else to go. We are in the fight of our lives,” Caryn Oberman told The Epoch Times.
The mother of six, with two sons and a son-in-law now in uniform, joined efforts in her community, Yad Binyamin, to supply soldiers heading to the frontlines. The community sits at a major crossroads.
We Know We have nowhere else to go. We are in the fight of our lives.
~Caryn Oberman, local resident
Mrs. Oberman credits a 10-year-old boy with realizing, as air-raid sirens wailed and cellphone alerts went off early on Oct. 7, that his brothers were probably being called up and that many soldiers would be passing by.
The boy took food intended for Sabbath and holiday meals that day and started giving it away to soldiers at the community’s front gate, she said.
The boy and other community youth then started distributing bottled water.
Then, people realized that the soldiers needed food.
“The community started making sandwiches and bringing food.” They’ve now prepared hundreds of thousands of meals, she said, sending food to supplement soldiers’ army rations.
