“It’s not a war, it’s a massacre.” The words are by Israeli General Itai Veruv. He is talking about the Kfar Aza kibbutz massacre. Where the emergency volunteer organization Zaka discovered at least 200 corpses of men, women and children. Kfar Aza was an agricultural community home to 750 people. It became a cemetery after Hamas gunmen broke in from the Gaza Strip and devastated it. “Mothers, fathers, children, young families killed in their beds, in the dining room, in their garden,” Veruv told the news agency Reuters. Some victims were beheaded, he said. The terrorists set fire to houses to force people to flee outside and then kill them. And the stories of survivors report other horrors.
The witness
Avidor Schwartzman said he hid with his wife and one-year-old daughter in the safe room of their home for more than 20 hours before being rescued by Israeli soldiers. He will never forget the scene he saw: «There were bodies everywhere. Dead bodies everywhere. We saw that our little piece of paradise, our little piece of paradise, was completely burned – burned and with blood everywhere.” On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces brought foreign press to the kibbutz, where ruins of burned houses overhung streets littered with dead residents and militants, torched cars and piles of broken furniture and other debris. There is no official death toll yet. But the military says dozens of residents were killed in the attack.
The dynamics
“We heard gunshots and we were basically barricaded in there for 21 hours until the army rescued us,” said his wife Keren Flash. “We kept hearing shots, shots, bombs and alarms, and we didn’t know what was happening.” Hamas gunmen broke through the kibbutz’s fence, possibly using an excavator. From there they opened the way for other armed men. The terrorists also arrived on motorbikes and hang gliders, the spokesperson added. Veruv estimates that the total number of armed men who entered the kibbutz was around 70. Armed with Kalashnikovs, rockets and hand grenades. The bodies of some Hamas militants could still be seen lying in the streets around the kibbutz, wearing black shirts, khaki pants and military jackets. One still had his gun in his hand.
The alarm, the shots
Ilana Brunda, 64, described a The print the massacre from inside the kibbutz: «At first light the alarm system went off signaling the infiltration of attackers. The shooting started, very close, behind our house. My husband, my sister-in-law and I rushed into the shelter and remained there, barricaded, while hell blazed outside. We have some sort of armored door that must have withstood the attack well. Because, unable to enter, the terrorists shot through the windows and moved on. There seemed to be many of them, furious, they destroyed homes, burned cars, killed our neighbors, exterminating entire families as in a new Shoah.”
Children as Trojan Horses
Yafi Shpirer, an Argentine psychologist married to an Israeli, said that «the terrorists entered to massacre children, who slept in cots, and women in all the houses. They used children as a Trojan horse to talk and get neighbors to open their homes. The sirens sounded and we hid in the shelter we have. In WhatsApp groups we started receiving news of kidnappings. They told us there were terrorists patrolling a street 200 meters from my kitchen. Every kibbutz has a defense unit, in our case about twenty young people who went out to protect the houses and died. Then they killed everyone, there were agonizing hours until the army arrived. They are animals who have come to destroy us.” She says she has «fought all my life for peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. Now I’m terrified.”
«Tell the world what you saw here»
Among the dead also Smadar Mor Idan, 38 years old, killed by terrorists in her home. She was a Shin Bet agent. Her name was released yesterday by the security agency together with that of two other colleagues, Itay Yehoshua (36) and Omer Gvera (26), killed in combat in the south of the country. Outside the Kfar Aza kibbutz, witnesses said they saw the crushed crib of a baby lying outside a burned house, corpses strewn across the streets, body bags lined up on an outdoor basketball court.
One resident’s body lay covered in a purple sheet with a bare foot protruding, as if he was just sleeping. Alongside a pillow and other objects from their daily life. In the distance gunshots and explosions. Smoke rose from Gaza. The last shout towards the Reuters reporter is that of a soldier: “Tell the world what you saw here.”
Cover photo from: Reuters/Ronen Zvulun