It has been ten years since the 2005 Disengagement plan, which saw the Israeli government and the IDF expel all the Jewish residents of Gush Katif in Gaza.

On Tuesday, Gush Katif women expellees as well as those who were youths during the expulsions gathered in the former Gush Katif community of Ganei Tal, later reestablished near the central Israel kibbutz of Hafetz Haim.

Before the event, Arutz Sheva spoke with Shifra Shomron, who was 18 years old and just finishing high school when she was expelled from her home.

“In all the turmoil of finishing my matriculation exams, I had to deal with the fact that I might be losing my home and my community would be destroyed,” she recalled. “It was not easy to be struggling with that on the one hand and doing my test like any other high school student on the other hand.”

The youths, said Shomron, in addition to their matriculation exams and the upcoming expulsion, also had to deal with the constant Arab terrorism in the area which resulted in the loss of friends, neighbors and even teachers.

10 years later, she added, the expulsion “is definitely part of my identity. Even now, 10 years later, when I’m asked who I am and where I come from, I reply, ‘I’m Shifra Shomron. I’m from Neve Dekalim’. It’s a huge part of who I am.”