Before the horrors of October 7, Aya Shahar never considered leaving her busy life in the bustling metropolis of Tel Aviv and moving south to an agricultural life in a kibbutz near the Gaza border.
“It wasn’t the future I planned for myself,” Shahar told CNN.
But after Hamas-led militants stormed through border fence in 2023, killing more than 1,200 in Israel and taking more than 250 people hostage, Shahar felt a need to help rebuild the kibbutzim that were ravaged and subsequently emptied in the wake of the attacks.
A kibbutz is a type of Jewish agricultural commune built on socialist principles. Much of the area along Israel’s border with Gaza is made up of kibbutzim, and…
