Efrat Nursi, the leader of the IDF Rabbinate's female coroner team, which has been working since the start of the war at the Shura Camp in central Israel, says that the efforts to identify the bodies of the victims of the October 7th massacre are ongoing nearly two months later.
"We tended to women that we knew personally. Neighbors, friends. Since we feel that we're doing something important, I can handle the tough scenes. I manage to disconnect because I know why I'm here. I tell myself, 'There's another family whose doubts we removed,'" Nursi said in an interview with Radio Kan Moreshet.
She described her work. "From the moment a fallen female soldier arrives, the entire process is performed by only women. I feel a great sense of importance and feel it is a great privilege to tend to holy women. We see difficult sights, but that's aside. As the Military Rabbinate, we need to bring them to burial as fast as possible, with an emphasis on absolute identification, and that's what we do. 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There are tasks connected to the identification that have to be done on Shabbat in order to diminish the families' pain."
She noted that "October 7th was a life-changing event. We have a lot more tolerance, more camaraderie."