In Kibbutz Nirim, hard by the Gaza border, the sound of hammers cuts through the silence that has settled on this small Israeli farming community since a ceasefire took effect on January 19.

Hamas's 2023 attack tore through the community of around 400 people, just two kilometres (little more than a mile) from the border but, 16 months later, Nirim is rebuilding now that the bombs have subsided.

"It's so important that we make it beautiful again," said Adele Raemer, an Israeli-American who has lived in the kibbutz for 49 years.

"We're rebuilding our resilience to feel safe again here," the 70-year-old retired teacher said.

A row of houses in the northwest of the kibbutz -- scarred but not destroyed in the Hamas attack -- has been newly renovated, the walls of the single-storey buildings shining white in the winter sun.

Further down the street, construction workers were laying tiles and applying more white paint to a house which had been gutted by rocket fire from Gaza in the weeks after October 7, 2023.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218........

© Al Monitor