They poured out from Gaza, racing deep across the Judaean fields, many kilometers into Israel, killing the old and weak, kidnapping the ones they could capture. The raiders were laden with plunder, especially hostages, who would be sold later for very high prices. They were elated with their success. In Gaza, the people cheered, danced in the street, threw sweets in celebration, berated, degraded, and humiliated the stunned living prisoners dragged before them.

It happened ~2,800 years ago. 

The 8th-century Biblical prophet Amos was a shepherd from a small community south of Jerusalem. Amos prophesied Gaza’s destruction for their systematic kidnapping of entire Jewish communities, which they sold into captivity.  God would not forgive them for what they did.

“Thus saith the LORD: For three transgressions of Gaza, yea, for four, I will not reverse it: because they carried away captive a whole captivity, to deliver them up to Edom. So will I send a fire on the wall of Gaza, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.”

Gaza – October 7, 2023

Palestinian terrorists, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Gazans, burst across the fields, deep into Israel. They killed ~1,200 people that terrible day. They kidnapped another ~240 back to a celebratory Gaza. The victims, alive and dead, were later sold for very high prices.

In time, world public opinion, heavily antisemitic and anti-Israel in fervor, prevented Israel from ending the Gazan evil. Hamas, funded by Iran and fueled by Islamist theology, remains amidst a reduced enclave in the rubble that was Gaza.

As Amos had prophesied and had occurred ~2,800 years ago, it occurred again to the Gazans.  (God) sent a fire on the wall of Gaza, and it devoured their palaces thereof. Hamas and the Gaza human shields they hid behind paid a terrible price in blood.

On October 7, 2023, the terrorists reached their deepest penetration into Israel, 24 km from Gaza, the Israeli city of Ofakim.

Early, around 6:45 AM, the terrorists arrived in Ofakim from the West along Route 241. They were heavily armed with guns, hand grenades, RPG rockets, plastic explosive charges, and mines.

The residents, startled from their sleep by the scream of the sirens, scrambled out of their houses seeking the safety of nearby bomb shelters. The terrorists waited and killed the unarmed as they tried to reach safety. Methodically, they proceeded house to house, pounding on the doors, yelling, “Jew, Jew, open the door.” They shot anyone they encountered.

A few residents, under Israel’s tight gun control laws, who were permitted to have handguns, emerged fighting back. The tiny police force fought back. A couple of soldiers, home for the holiday weekend, joined in the fight.  They were all heavily outgunned.

They fought back with the ferocity of Lions.

By 10:00 AM, the lopsided battle was over.  Twenty-two terrorists had been killed.  Six defenders had fallen.  The carnage left ~27 civilians dead in the streets. The terrorists, with their wounded, withdrew to Gaza.

The Israeli army did not arrive until 2:00 PM that day.

The second Holocaust, a mini-Holocaust, was over by the next day.  The struggle to redeem the hostages from Gaza had only begun.

The confusing news emerging through the fog of horror of October 7, the massacres, the hostages, was incomprehensible. In time, historical and clinical clarity pieced together what happened that day.

Responsibility, blame, and finger-pointing continue unresolved.

Across the Gaza envelope of communities, kibbutzim, farms, and towns, individual actions repeated the common threads of courage.

In January 2024, with the rattle and explosion of heavy fighting echoing a short distance away in Gaza, I met with Sam Philipe along the Gaza Border. I carried emergency medical equipment that was donated to front-line kibbutzim.  It was an impotent feeling considering what they had just endured.

Sam and I had been building Giant, 10’ Border Lions throughout Israel, sited at significant sites of Jewish historical presence.  Lions now stretch in a dozen sites from Kiryat Shemona and the Golan Heights in the north to Dimona and Keren Shalom at the southern apogee of Gaza, Israel, and Egypt.

However, in January, we wondered how we could symbolize, even modestly, the courage of October 7? Modern interpretive sculptures require docents to explain to people what they are looking at was not acceptable.  We wanted something simple.  Something that is understood.

Ofakim survived because its outgunned defenders fought like Lions became the answer.  Our solution was a Lion. Not just another Lion, but arguably the biggest roaring Lion in the Middle East.

We obtained concept and site approval from Ofakim.  They wanted the Lion at the corner of Route 241, where the terrorists first turned into Ofakim that terrible morning.  The City was going to redevelop the corner and build up a mounting platform of stone and sand for “The Lion of Ofakim.” The Lion is over 24’ long and stands at the shoulder more than 10’. The platform is another 10’.

The Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation would fund the project.  Sam Philipe, a sixth-generation Jerusalemite and world-recognized artist and sculptor, would fabricate it.

Work began and was initially completed in the early fall of 2025.  The ongoing Gaza war, the first Iran war, and more, had delayed the complete redevelopment of the site.  A formal presentation and dedication of the Lion was delayed and delayed again.

In March 2026, the second Iranian war saw missiles raining down on civilian targets across Israel.  Sam and I discussed our options.  We could continue delaying siting the dedication stone for a formal ceremony, possibly indefinitely. Or, we could do the opposite.

Sam approached the mayor of Ofakim and proposed we site the dedication stone as soon as possible despite the risks raining from the sky.  The message of the Lion, the courage of Ofakim, of the people of Israel, became the consideration.

With great credit to Sam, a few days ago, despite the dangerous considerations, Sam and his crew, hauled the 300-pound engraved Lion of Ofakim dedication stone up the stone tiers. They sited it at the base of the biggest Roaring Lion in the Middle East.

Ironically, perhaps beshert, Israel’s fight against the existential threat of Iran is known as Operation Roaring Lion.

Text of the Lion of Ofakim.

אריה יהודה “כֹּה, אָמַר יְהוָה, עַל-שְׁלֹשָׁה פִּשְׁעֵי עַזָה, וְעַל-אַרְבָּעָה לֹא אֲשִׁיבֶנּוּ: עַל-הַגְלוֹתָם גָּלוּת שְׁלֵמָה, לְהַסְגִּיר לֶאֱדוֹם. וְשִׁלַּחְתִּי אֵשׁ, בְּחוֹמַת עַזָה; וְאָכְלָה, אַרְמְנֹתֶיהָ” (עמוס א’, ו’ ז’)

The Lion of Ofakim “Thus saith the LORD: For three transgressions of Gaza, yea, for four, I will not reverse it: because they carried away captive a whole captivity, to deliver them up to Edom. So will I send a fire on the wall of Gaza, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.” (Amos 1:6-7) Donated by the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation,

With Support from the City of Ofakim.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)