Narkis Reuven-Nagar, known simply as Narkis, is a popular Israeli singer who draws regularly on biblical and Jewish religious themes. She also grew up in the Gaza Strip before Israel forcibly removed all Jews from the coastal enclave in 2005. And she has a lot to say about the current war against Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Narkis lives today in the area of Ashkelon, which was also targeted on the ‘Black Shabbat’ of October 7. In an interview with Israel’s Walla news portal, she described the events of that morning as a “holocaust. There is no other word.”

As a religiously-observant Jew, Walla wanted to know if the total collapse of Israel’s defenses and the unbridled orgy of terrorist violence that was unleashed on innocent men, women and children had shaken her faith in God.

“At first I was angry with God,” she recalled. “I said to Him, ‘How can you allow such a thing? Did you fall asleep?’ I shouted, ‘Lord, wake up! Look what they are doing to us. We are humiliated. They are slaughtering us for hours on end as if You don’t exist!'”

Scripture tells us that “He who watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps” (Psalm 121:4).

So, as happened during and in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust, many Jewish people naturally began to wonder whether or not this verse, and the Bible as a whole, is true.

But those who truly sought and turned to the Lord, even in anger, found themselves strengthened.

As Narkis explained: “Somehow I began to feel stronger. We suffered this crazy attack born of hatred for us because we are Jewish. And it actually made me want to be even more Jewish. I understand the anger, but the vast majority of people I spoke to told me that it only served to strengthen them [spiritually].”

Narkis, like many Israeli singers known for their biblical musical flavor, has been inundated with requests to sing for soldiers, the wounded and the hundreds of thousands of Israelis displaced by this war. In one particularly memorable encounter, she recalled a group of soldiers asking her to simply come say hi. Before she knew it the affair turned into an impromptu sidewalk performance. “It was the most exciting and surreal thing,” she said. “How lucky I am to be part of such a nation.”

There are many unanswered questions related to October 7. But Narkis stresses that the important thing is to remember that “there is a Creator, and that this happened for some reason, even if we don’t know that reason. Our job now as the people of Israel is to be united.”

Resettle Gaza?

Narkis caused something of an international uproar when a clip of her singing to soldiers tasked with retrieving the bodies of victims from the devastated towns and villages of southern Israel went viral.

In the clip, she sings to the soldiers about “finishing Gaza” and “returning to Gush Katif,” the main bloc of Jewish settlements uprooted in the 2005 Disengagement.

Al Jazeera ran with the story, and Israel’s detractors shared it enthusiastically as “proof” that Israel’s true intention was to take revenge by ethnically cleansing Gaza of Arabs and resettling it with Jews.

Narkis responded that, first of all, it is silly how much emphasis people abroad put on what some performer sings to lift the spirits of a group of traumatized soldiers, as if it somehow represents Israeli policy.

More importantly, Narkis stressed that she had not called for the genocide of the population of Gaza. “I didn’t say ‘wipe out Gaza,'” she clarified. “I said that we must put an end to the problems that Gaza creates for us.”

As for returning Jewish settlement to Gaza, Narkis suggested that when the war is finally over, and if it can be done in a way that benefits the State of Israel and doesn’t put anyone in danger, those who want to return should be allowed to do so.