A resident of Moshav Netiv Ha’Asara has found there is “strong resilience” among residents of her community and others that were besieged by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023.
On October 7th, terrorists were caught in Nitzan Eilon’s garden. Luckily, the community security squad arrived in time and caught four terrorists under the window of her safe room.
Since that time, Eilon has been exploring how the residents of Western Negev communities have survived the horrific invasion, massacre of 1,200 people and abduction of 251 from the region.
As a doctoral student in Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s conflict management and resolution program, she chose to research how the residents of the communities are coping. Eilon conducted a survey of about 600 residents of the western Negev communities (aged 18-91), beginning 100 days after the events of October 7.
The study, conducted under the direction of Prof. Orna Braun-Lewensohn, examined the stress reactions of the Gaza Envelope residents to the war situation.
Somewhat surprisingly, Eilon found that there was a prominent level of community resilience, although there were differences between age groups.
Resilience scores were in the upper range of the scale, (an average of 3.54 out of 7), as was the sense of coherence, meaning the belief that there is logic to life (average 4.44 out of 7). However, trust in the IDF was relatively low (average 2.33 out of 5).
About 64 percent of the respondents were residents of the kibbutzim, 33 percent were the next generation of the families that founded the kibbutz or the moshav in which they live.
Eighty-three percent of the respondents were at home on that Shabbat Simchat Torah, October 7, and 45 percent directly experienced the infiltration of the terrorists.
Fifty-two percent reported they had a family member or close friend who was murdered, kidnapped, or wounded during the attack.
The study also examined the differences between the founders of the settlements and the younger residents. Comparing these populations, Eilon found that although in all types of settlements the community resilience was relatively high, the level of resilience among the group of founders was distinctly higher than the younger generation.
The members of the communities who reported relatively high coping resources such as community resilience, a sense of coherence and trust in the army, also reported lower levels of anxiety and psychological distress.
“These resources were essential and significant in reducing stress reactions during the crisis event,” Eilon noted.
The stress responses she tracked – anxiety, depression, and physical distress – were higher in younger people than older adults (61 and over).
Young people ages 18-30 were the most anxious.
When the differences between men and women were examined, it emerged that women experienced more psychological distress (average of the total sample was 2.29 while the women reported 2.38), compared to the men who reported less distress (1.99).
Women also experienced a lower level of psychological quality of life (the total sample average was 12.95 while the women reported 12.87 compared to the men at 13.40).
The findings indicate that women experienced more negative emotions, lower self-worth, and excessive rumination.
Eilon also found that women made more use of an emotional coping style (for example, receiving help from others, listening to advice from those in their environment, receiving emotional support) than men (1.97 for the women vs. 1.75 for the men).
“The unique focus of the current research is how one’s personality style (attachment) which begins to develop in infancy, combined with a sense of coherence, trust in the army and community resilience, help people cope and begin to recover from the events of October 7,” she said.
“Alongside the findings of the sense of coherence and the high community resilience that we discovered, the fact that we are still in the midst of a war, the hostages have not yet returned and there are many more evacuees, it is imperative to continue to examine the struggle in its various stages.
“The current challenges are many and there are more ahead of us,” Eilon noted.
“We have succeeded in deepening the understanding of the resources and coping strategies that help residents and communities get back on their feet. However, we must ensure that all population groups manage to cope and recover and grow anew,” Prof. Braun-Lewensohn added.
