Israelis living near Gaza border return home for 1st time since Oct. 7 Hamas attack

Nick Schifrin:

Yes, that's right.

It absolutely has been paused in Southern Gaza over the last few months. And much of Southern Gaza has, in fact, been evacuated. But this weekend, we filmed in Sderot. That is the largest city in Southern Israel right there nearest Gaza. On October the 7th, Hamas killed at least 50 civilians and 20 police officers.

Now the government is facilitating families to return and restarting schools.

And a warning:

Some of the images in our report are disturbing to watch.

In Sderot's Hamakif Haklali Amit Secondary School, it's the first day of school for the second time this year. For five months, all of these students and their families have been displaced. And so today's a reunion for boys who can be boys again, including Joseph Hi.

Joseph Hi, Student:

I am very, very, very excited to see the new school year. I'm not so excited to see the teachers.

(Laughter)

Nick Schifrin:

Those teachers feel being here is their duty, and Mali Nesimpour brings additional responsibilities, her two youngest children. She doesn't have childcare, but she felt she had to be here, as we talked about before she returned.

Mali Nesimpour, Teacher:

I must go do my job. I have responsibility to my students.

Nick Schifrin:

She made those students responsible for one homework assignment, create cards of the Israeli soldiers who've died since October the 7th and the words they lived by.

Mali Nesimpour (through interpreter):

Love everyone. Love every people.

Nick Schifrin:

Ilan Abecasis is trying to give a lot of love. He's a history teacher and the vice principal, and he knows what the students have endured.

Ilan Abecasis, Vice Principal:

They absolutely with the post-trauma, and we are trying to make educational and routine, but how can you come to — come back to routine when this movie is on your mind?

Nick Schifrin:

That very real movie of Israel's Black Saturday is enshrined on the school's wall. On October the 7th, Hamas terrorists killed 51 people in Sderot, including Dolev Swisa, a former student at the school, and his wife, Odaya, a former staff member.

That morning, Hamas gunmen drove into downtown Sderot unimpeded, and Odaya Swisa ended up in an ambush. A gunman shot and killed her point blank. And in the back seat, their 6- and 3-year-old daughters. Police approached, and the 6-year-old asked which side they were on. She tells them she was protecting her little sister. That day, gunmen also killed Dolev Swisa, leaving the girls orphans.

Sderot is the closest Israeli city to Gaza, and Hamas left it in flames. They targeted police vehicles with heavy weapons, left executed bodies on the road. They captured the police station, and they massacred dozens of tourists waiting at the bus stop.

Today, the bus stop has been cleaned up. A mall has reopened. But the scars are everywhere. This tour is standing on the side of what used to be the police station. And the playgrounds are mostly empty.

Mali Nesimpour:

Now the city, it's kind of a ghost. And it's very hard to live like that.

Nick Schifrin:

Nesimpour and her six children evacuated from Sderot to three different hotels and homes, ending up in Jerusalem.

Mali Nesimpour:

We want our house back. It's not comfortable to live in another house.

Nick Schifrin:

How does it feel to be back in Sderot?

Mali Nesimpour:

The parents in Sderot are very, very, very afraid to send their children. Our city will be alive. We will be alive, but we must be patient. We must say that we're under war. The war is not ended.

Nick Schifrin:

Abecasis evacuated his family 175 miles south to Eilat, except for his youngest son, who deployed to Gaza for a hundred days.

Man (through interpreter):

We began on Sunday.

Nick Schifrin:

Abecasis also evacuated what he calls his second family to Eilat, his students. He calls himself his students' anchor and hopes that education in the desert or in Sderot provides routine and reassurance.

Ilan Abecasis:

What does child ask for everywhere in the world? Quiet, security, education, run like children in street, like any other child in the world, Sderot children too.

Nick Schifrin:

Do you feel safe in Sderot?

Ilan Abecasis:

Personally, yes, I feel safe because I'm sure that October 7 will not come back again. But I know a lot of people, they don't want to come back to Sderot again until the government or someone gives them a promise that this is the last war.

Nick Schifrin:

But Eli Butera doesn't believe that promise yet.

Eli Butera, Resident of Sderot, Israel: The trust has been gone. We don't trust the government.

Nick Schifrin:

Butera and his wife and daughter have also lived in multiple places since October the 7th. They returned to Sderot when his daughter's state-sponsored childcare ran out. He supports the war in Gaza, but cannot forgive his own government for a generational intelligence and security failure.

Eli Butera:

They have been ignored all the alerts. There were a lot of alerts that they're going to do it. The government, the army and the intelligence just ignored. The monster needs to die. But who's the real criminal here?

Nick Schifrin:

For Tali Levy, those politics can wait, but she remains in a rented apartment. She refuses to return to Sderot because she doesn't think it's safe.

Tali Levy, Displaced Israeli:

I have to take out the poison from there. I have to clean it. I can't even — I can't even smell in the house.

Nick Schifrin:

For months, Levy has stayed busy helping others and giving tours to visitors who support Israel. But now she feels she needs her own support for post-traumatic stress.

Tali Levy:

I was so strong. I suddenly felt that I'm not good. It's very hard for me to be on the other side, the one that needs help.

Nick Schifrin:

All she can hope is that, one day, she will feel confident enough to return to Sderot and that the city's recovery will also be the country's.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.