As Israel prepares to mark the first anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, some 200 cyclists gathered in southern Israel on Saturday to commemorate 10 riders slaughtered by Palestinian terrorists during the 2023 invasion.
“I feel a sense of community, cycling with riders from the south and the entire country,” Sylvan Adams, owner of the professional cycling team Israel-Premier Tech and organizer of the event, told JNS in Sderot.
“We are one, and this is how we are able to demonstrate it, by commemorating the tragedy of Oct. 7 together. This is how we will overcome, rebuild our spirit and in the end prevail,” he added.
Bereaved families and survivors of the Hamas attack departed at around 9 a.m. from Sderot, cycling along Road 232, which connects the towns and villages of the south and where Hamas ambushed most of the cyclists murdered on Oct. 7.
Avida Bachar, a farmer and resident of Kibbutz Be’eri, who lost his wife, son and leg in the massacre, and who accompanied Israel-Premier Tech to the departure of the Tour de France in Florence over the summer, took part in Saturday’s 20 kilometer (12.4 mile) ride.
“Nothing will bring back my family, but we must invest all of our energy in rebuilding our people—and a stronger, forgiving and empathetic community as we return to simple life,” he added.
The riders first stopped at Tzomet Mefalsim, where a small memorial was set up for Tomer Shpirer, murdered while biking in the area.
“I live with the sadness of this immense loss,” Yoram Shpirer, Tomer’s father, told JNS on Saturday. “Still, we have to make sure to do better, be there for one another and help more. We also must make sure that the 101 hostages held captive on the other side of the border come back. Everything else can wait,” he added.
When he was murdered, Tomer was sporting a replica of the jersey worn by Israeli cyclist Guy Niv when he competed in the Tour de France in 2022.
Niv, who in 2020 made history by becoming the first-ever Israeli to complete the Tour, took part in the commemorative ride on Saturday.
“When I realized that this was the shirt Tomer was wearing that morning when he went out to do what he loved the most, it touched me in ways that are so painful,” Niv told JNS.
Near Tzomet Mefalsim, Niv entered a roadside bomb shelter where on Oct. 7 dozens of Israelis were murdered as Hamas targeted the space with grenades, RPGs and automatic gunfire.
“It was supposed to be a safe space. Too many people found their death inside these shelters, even people I knew personally. I wanted to feel this place,” he said.
After paying their respects, the riders climbed back on their bicycles and rode to Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where 64 people were murdered on Oct. 7, including Nadav Goldstein, a cycling enthusiast, and his daughter Yam.
Nadav’s wife, Chen Almog-Goldstein, was taken hostage with their three other children. All four were freed in November as part of a weeklong ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
“It is forbidden for us to forget for even a minute what happened on Oct. 7. The civilians did their maximum to avoid being murdered,” Varda Goldstein, Nadav’s mother, told JNS outside the ruins of her son’s former house in Kfar Aza.
“I want my grandchildren who came back from captivity to tell their story as often as they can so that nobody forgets,” she continued.
“Above all, we must not lose hope. We must rebuild the villages that were burnt, remember those we lost and create a new life here,” she added.
The ride ended at the entrance of Kibbutz Be’eri by La Mdavesh, a famous cycling shop where posters and chairs were set up for a ceremony.
“My shop is very well known,” said Erez Manor, the owner of La Mdavesh and an Oct. 7 survivor.
One hundred and one of Kibbutz Be’eri’s residents were killed and 33 others were kidnapped,10 of whom remain in Gaza, on Oct. 7.
That morning, more than a dozen terrorists were spotted around 7 a.m. by Manor’s shop, where three revelers who had escaped the carnage at the Supernova music festival had hidden in the bathroom. They were eventually rescued.
Manor’s mother-in-law was murdered and his son was injured but managed to run away.
“It’s a closed military zone now. We have been working for the last eight months but just four days a week. I have 300 bicycles for rent but we don’t rent any of them or conduct any tours since,” Manor said.
“I thought that last February, life would come back to the kibbutz. Now, I understand that it will take more time because of the war. But we are open and the moment that quiet will return, we will develop the shop even more,” he continued.
“Be’eri will be a touristic center, not just for cycling but restaurants with the dairy factory and the confectionery. We put together a plan before Oct. 7 and it will happen,” he added.
On Saturday, JNS also spoke to Ayelet Benjamin, the wife of Ron Benjamin, a cyclist whose body was recovered by the IDF from Gaza in May.
Ayelet was wearing a shirt bearing the last selfie her husband took before he was murdered.
“We must keep living and cherish every given moment with our loved ones,” she said. “I chose life when I could have easily sunk into grief, but I have two daughters at home who need me,” she added.
“I continue to support the struggle to bring back those alive for rehabilitation and the murdered for burial,” said Benjamin.
Nissan Kalderon, the brother of hostage Ofer Kalderon, and Nir Zalmanovich, whose father Hillel Zalmanovich was murdered while cycling on Oct. 7, also attended the event.
“I am here to commemorate my father. We remember him, all those murdered and all the cyclists. We continue to do this for them,” Zalmanovich told JNS on Saturday.
Hillel departed on his ride on Oct. 7 from La Mdavesh, and cycled for an hour around Kibbutz Kissufim and then close to Be’eri, where he was murdered.
“On Monday, we will go to his grave, we will also visit the point where he was murdered and we will plant a tree in his memory that will continuously grow,” said Zalmanovich.
“We must remain united as a people to make sure that there will be a future for this country and that there will continue to be a ‘Medinat Israel’,” he added.
Edi Goldin’s son Oren, an enthusiast cyclist, was a member of the civilian security squad of Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak and one of the first people to be murdered by Hamas there.
“After 33 days, they told us that he was murdered. Hamas still took his body to Gaza,” she explained.
“When we finished sitting shiva [the Jewish mandatory seven-day mourning period], the IDF told us they had found sand with Oren’s blood on it. We buried it; the second time [in succession] that we separated from Oren,” she added.
On July 24, the IDF rescued Oren’s body from Hamas’s tunnels in Gaza.
“We had a miracle. We could close the circle and bring our son to be buried in our country. Oren was on the same cycling team as Ofer Kalderon,” said Edi. “We can’t forget the hostages and we have to continue fighting to bring them back.”
{Reposted from JNS}
