Nir Oz Is Being Replanned So Survivors Can Return Without Reliving the Attack

In Nir Oz, a village in Israel beside Gaza, dozens of burned houses have been cleared away. Only the concrete shelters still have to be taken away, and several freed hostages have moved into new houses built for return.

Ami Palmer, who directs the rebuilding project, says the plan is to replan the village rather than rebuild it exactly as it was. Palmer said: "We started an entire replanning of the kibbutz." He describes the approach in this way: "It's trauma-informed design. It tries to help you feel at home and yet feel that the place has changed enough so you're not triggered by every step that you take."

Palmer argues that survivors should be able to recognize Nir Oz as home without the layout itself bringing back the attack. His project keeps the place familiar while changing it enough to live in day to day.

The reason is visible in details residents have kept. Dalit Aharon, whose parents helped start Nir Oz, still walks past rows of mailboxes marked with colored stickers. Red marks those murdered and black marks those kidnapped. She said the village held 400 people on Oct. 7, 2023, and one in four was killed or taken.

For Dalit, one house is the hardest. Her close friend Shiri Bibas was like a sister to her. Bibas and her two small sons, the youngest a baby, appeared in footage showing armed men around them and were later killed in Gaza.

Dalit hid in her own safe room during the attack. She says she is determined to return when the village is fully rebuilt in two years, to continue her roots and to keep the memory of Shiri, her parents, and others who never had the chance to live there.

Not everyone will come back. Some survivors are now making new lives elsewhere, and questions about security beside Gaza and accountability for the security failures remain open.

For now, Dalit and her husband Ahi are focused on healing. On a beach in southern Israel, Ahi chalks his surfboard after learning to surf through an Israeli therapy program while Dalit cheers him from the sand. Ahi said that until the hostages came back that was the only thing on their minds, and now they are thinking about recovery as much as they can.