"I am always on duty, for everyone. I am the nurse of the kibbutz," says Nirit Hohnwald-Kornfeld. Even on the morning of October 7th, Nirit was there for everyone, for all the residents of Kibbutz Be’eri who really needed her during their darkest day. "On Shabbat morning, at 6:30 am, the loud booms started. I hurried to get dressed, because I knew that if someone needed me, I would immediately come. Very quickly they called to say that there was a severely injured person near the dental clinic, and I ran to help him," said Nirit.
Nirit came to help the first wounded man who was badly injured and realized that they needed to move to a safer place. A doctor who lived nearby joined her and together they brought the wounded into the dental clinic, just as more wounded people continued arriving in the clinic.
Nirit treated the wounded incessantly, kindly providing medical assistance, whilst all around her the kibbutz members were fighting terrorists, as they continued to attack them. After many hours of fighting and treating the wounded, the ammunition ran out and Nirit and her friends realized they had to hide. The terrorists fired without stopping for a moment, they threw hand grenades at them, and the clinic caught on fire.
Nirit said she was worried that rescue forces would not arrive in time, but our soldiers did not give up, they continued to fight the terrorists. The soldiers did everything in their power to search for kibbutz members and bring them to safety. "After two hours in hiding, I heard voices in Hebrew: “The IDF is here, the IDF! Is anyone here?” I had very little strength left and asked the soldiers to help me rescue my friends and family," said Nirit.
Even after she was rescued, Nirit did not abandon the kibbutz, and with unimaginable strength, she re-entered the kibbutz with IDF forces to help save her family and other friends from danger. She is one of Be’eri's heroines, the compassionate and devoted nurse Nirit Hohnwald-Kornfeld.
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