NIRIM, Israel (AFP) — In Kibbutz Nirim, the sound of hammers cuts through the silence that has settled on this small Israeli farming community since a ceasefire took effect on 19 January.

Hamas’s 2023 attack tore through the community of around 400 people, just two kilometers from the Gaza 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 7 October 2023.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, most of them civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse tally of Israeli official figures.

The militants killed four of Nirim’s 400 or so inhabitants and took five more hostage, according to figures from the Israeli military.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza killed at least 48,365 people, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.

‘War could reignite’

In the corner closest to the perimeter fence, within sight of Gaza, work has yet to begin on 30 houses which were the most heavily damaged.

“It hurts being here in this corner,” Raemer said.

Only a few trees are still standing, their branches lopped off after they were burnt in the attack.

Raemer says she is preparing to move back into her own home deeper inside the kibbutz but does not know when she will return permanently.

Her safe room, where she hid with her son during the attack, has been given a fresh coat of paint.

Raemer described the day of the attack as an “11-hour nightmare.” Hamas gunmen tried, unsuccessfully, to break into her home through a side window and the front door.

“I looked at my son. He looked at me. We told each other that we loved each other and basically said goodbye.”

Despite those memories, Raemer said she is determined to return.

“My plan is to start spending a few nights here at a time... If I feel secure enough, I may come back earlier.”

Her decision rests, in part, on the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas, which is holding despite several close calls.

“I realized that the war could reignite at any minute,” Raemer said.

“I have made the decision that I will be coming home. I’m stubborn... Every family is going to have to decide for themselves.”