Breathe
By Paola Virrueta
Amid military checkpoints usually led by young men in their twenties, I arrived at Kibbutz Re'im, located in southwestern Israel and a few kilometers from the Gaza border, whose grounds were used for the Nova music festival that brought together hundreds of young people and DJs.
I start walking through the Re'im grounds and pass people visiting the photographs of the 360 youths killed in October, which are scattered throughout the site and are accompanied by flowers, some stuffed animals, candles, yellow ribbons. I even saw a guitar, which probably belonged to one of those killed or to one of the 40 or so young people still in the hands of Hamas.
Omer Wenkert has been held hostage for five months
We immediately met with Ricardo Grichener, uncle of Omer Wenkert, 22 years old, who has been kidnapped for more than 150 days. Ricardo crestfallen tells me that on Thursday, October 6, he was with Omer and his family at lunchtime for the Sukkot or Feast of Tabernacles. Until then, Omer was not sure about attending Nova's party and it was not until the following morning that he made the decision, which changed his life completely.
