Yael Shevach, a resident of Havat Gilad and the widow of Rabbi Raziel Shevach, who was murdered in a terror attack near the community in 2018, told the ynet studio Sunday morning that she was in Kfar Saba with her children when flames consumed her home in the Samaria community.
“A good friend came to tell me that the house had burned down completely. It is a small mercy that we were not inside it,” she said. “Families were evacuated exactly at the moment the house began to catch fire. It was so fast. There was a strong wind and it was very hot. It was cruel and violent.”
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Nothing is left of Yael Shevach's home in Havat Gilad
(Photos: Fire and Rescue Spokesperson, Avigail Uzi)
“I have nothing,” she continued. “I don’t have socks. I don’t have a headscarf. I am wearing my mother’s clothes and I took my sister-in-law’s makeup.”
She thanked those who quickly mobilized to help.
“From the first moment, we have not stopped receiving donations and invitations to all kinds of places. ‘We have this apartment, and we have this house, and what about you and how are you,’ and so much concern. It is simply amazing.”
Fire spreads through Havat Gilad on Saturday
(Video: Fire and Rescue Spokesperson, Section 27A of the Copyright Law)
Although the matter is still under investigation, Shevach believes deliberate arson caused the fire.
“We are treating this as a nationalist incident. Even if it is not, then five minutes after Havat Gilad went up in flames, fireworks, cries of joy and cheering had already begun from the nearby villages.”
Shevah said that “right now there is no water or electricity in the community. Thirteen homes were completely destroyed and, in effect, the entire community has been evacuated.” She also expressed concern that residents will not receive state assistance to rebuild.
“It is hard to assess the damage. Most of the families are not insured at all because we live in a community that has not yet received official recognition. That is problematic.”
Rabbi Raziel and Yael Shevach
Still, she made clear that she and her family will return to Havat Gilad.
“We will return and rebuild our home and start over. I know us. We know how to rise from severe crises. We have already done it once. It will not be easy, but it will happen.”
Shevach said what hurt her most was losing her husband’s books.
“In the end, I have nothing left from Raziel. He was a mohel, and all of the equipment burned. I have no photographs. My mother is a painter, and every year she paints a picture of my husband, and we hung them on the walls of the house, and everything simply burned. It is material, yes, but these are things we will not be able to reconstruct.”
Shevah again thanked those who rallied to help them.
“It really is amazing, and I truly have to say again, thank you. It is simply amazing to what level of precision people went with us to understand what we need. It is not self-evident at all. The people of Israel are the best community in the world, that is what I have to say.”
A firefighter battles the blaze in Havat Gilad
(Photo: Fire and Rescue Spokesperson)
Havat Gilad was evacuated Saturday because of a massive fire that destroyed 13 homes. Two firefighters were lightly injured. According to an initial assessment, the fire broke out after a cigarette butt was discarded, but a special investigation team was established by the Fire and Rescue Services and police, and investigators are also examining whether it was arson.
Fire officials said firefighters were still operating at the scene of the blaze, which began in the afternoon near the Mitzpe Yishai neighborhood in Kedumim and moved, aided by strong winds, toward Havat Gilad. In addition to the 13 homes that were completely burned, 11 other homes were damaged.
Forty-one firefighting teams took part in the operation, with assistance from other districts, along with 10 firefighting planes from the Elad squadron and a police aerial unit helicopter carrying rescuers from the Lahava unit, the national special rescue unit. Engineering vehicles, IDF water tankers and police officers from the Samaria area of the Judea and Samaria District also operated at the scene.
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