"I cried with excitement, it was a powerful moment of reflection. Each of us has a picture with this sign," Amiel Yarhi described finding the lost sign, which made its way back to the family.
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Yarhi's family did not believe that they would receive a memento from their home in Netzarim, which they left 19 years ago during Israel's disengagement from Gaza. During the battles in the heart of the Gaza Strip, an officer in an elite unit found a sign in Hebrew that read "Yarhi Family." He passed the information to a friend who grew up in Gush Katif, hoping that he might know the family to whom the remaining sign belongs.
And so, the sign reached Amiel Yarhi, 27, who was only eight years old when he and his family left the settlement of Netzarim. "I cried with excitement and was in shock. It was almost unreal," Yarhi described the excitement. "I hadn't seen this sign for almost 19 years, and it took me a moment to process. It's a throwback to a home that we loved very much."
Nowadays, Amiel and his brother are fighting in Gaza, near the place where they grew up. According to him, "We left Gush Katif, and now I have come here to fight. There is a feeling of homecoming to the place where you grew up. I had a fantasy or hope to come in and maybe identify that there was something here."
"I remember the day of the eviction, we recited lamentations and the whole family said goodbye from the house. The experience is profound because I don't have the opportunity to come back here and revisit my memories. There are, of course, more important missions than this, like bringing the hostages back, but there is something emotionally significant here. This sign has been waiting for us in Gaza until we return to it."