Horror of Hamas: Inside the Israeli kibbutz where children and women were killed

The rescue squad arrived at the Israeli kibbutz Kfar Aza expecting the worst, but the scenes were beyond anything that one could imagine. Soldiers faced unspeakable sights as they removed the bodies of victims, including about 40 babies and  children. Corpses strewn on streets. Body bags lined up on an outdoor basketball court. The stench of death is everywhere. Just a few days ago, this was the sleepy, scenic kibbutz of Kfar Aza, an Israeli farming community of about 750 people, many of them families with young children. Now it’s become a charnel house after Hamas gunmen burst out of the Gaza Strip on Saturday and laid waste to the village. The tragic details of border community attacks are only now being revealed. Kfar Aza is one of seven kibbutzim, or small farming communities, that were targeted by Hamas on Saturday. “Mothers, fathers, babies, young families killed in their beds, in the protection room, in the dining room, in their garden,” Israeli Major General Itai Veruv said on Tuesday, the seasoned soldier visibly shaken as troops went door-to-door to collect the bodies of residents killed in their homes. “It’s not a war, it’s not a battlefield. It’s a massacre,” Veruv said. Some victims were decapitated, he added. “I’ve never seen anything like this, and I’ve served for 40 years.” Kfar Aza, just three kilometres from the Gaza Strip, was among the communities hit hardest by the Hamas assault on southern Israel, which Israeli officials say has killed at least 1,000 people, mostly civilians gunned down in their homes, on the streets or at a dance festival. Retaliatory Israeli strikes have killed at least 830 Gazans and flattened whole districts, Palestinian officials say. Avidor Schwartzman, Kfar Aza attack survivor, said he hid with his wife and one-year-old daughter in the safe room of their house for more than 20 hours before being rescued by Israeli soldiers and emerging to confront a scene of “pure hell”. “There were bodies everywhere. Dead bodies everywhere,” the 38-year-old said. “We saw our little piece of paradise, our little piece of heaven, was totally burnt – burnt and with blood everywhere.” Gunmen breach kibbutz fence On Tuesday, Israeli Defence Forces took foreign press through the kibbutz, where ruins of burnt-out houses oversaw streets scattered with dead residents and militants, torched cars and piles of broken furniture and other wreckage. During their weekend attacks, Hamas militants carried out a “massacre” in Kfar Aza, killing women, children, toddlers, and the elderly “brutally butchered in an ISIS way of action,” the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) told CNN on Tuesday. [caption id=“attachment_13232232” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] An Israeli soldier stands at the entrance to a building at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, in southern Israel. Reuters[/caption] There was no official death toll from the Kfar Aza kibbutz as of Tuesday evening, and IDF has not revealed any details how the people were killed, with Israeli soldiers still searching homes; they suspect may be booby-trapped with explosives. The military spokesperson at the site said at least dozens of residents had been killed in the attack. She added that the military hadn’t yet pieced together the precise chain of events, with fighting having only completely ended late on Monday. The Hamas gunmen rammed through the kibbutz’s fence, possibly using an earthmover, clearing the way for dozens of other gunmen to enter through the breach, she said. **Also Read: 10 questions that explain Israel-Hamas war and where it stands** Militants also arrived on motorcycles and a hang-glider, the spokesperson added. Veruv, the major general, put the total number of gunmen to enter the kibbutz at about 70. Waves of the attackers, armed with Kalashnikov rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades, stormed the village, a reserve soldier told Reuters, declining to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media. **Also Read: They took my wife and daughters’: The horror stories of Hamas violence** Some of the militants’ bodies could still be seen lying on streets around the kibbutz, wearing black shirts, khaki trousers and army vests. One still had his hand on a pistol. ‘Our worst nightmares’ Schwartzman told Reuters he was woken about 6.30 am on Saturday by the booming sounds of rockets and that he and his family moved to their safe room an hour later after receiving a kibbutz-wide text telling them it was dangerous to be outside. [caption id=“attachment_13232252” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Bullet shaterred window of a house is seen in kibbutz Kfar Azza. AP[/caption] “We heard shootings and we were basically barricaded in for 21 hours until the army rescued us,” his wife, Keren Flash, took up the account. “We kept hearing shootings and gunfire and bombs and alarms, and we just didn’t know what was happening. Our worst nightmares.” Soldiers were still securing the streets of the kibbutz, once neatly lined with palm trees, banana plants and single-storey houses with verandas. Outside one home, the body of a resident lay covered by a purple bed sheet with a bare foot protruding, as if only sleeping. A pillow lay nearby with other accoutrements from their everyday life. **Also Read: From missiles to drones: How Hamas used specialised units to attack Israel** Bursts of gunfire and explosions could be heard in the distance. Jets could be heard above and smoke could be seen rising from Gaza. Sirens warned of incoming rockets intercepted overhead. One soldier shouted: “Tell the world what you saw here.” Another heavily hit Kibbutz’ On Monday, more than 100 victims were discovered at Be’eri, another kibbutz heavily affected by the attack. According to Israeli authorities, civilians were killed and taken captive in the kibbutz, which has about 1,000 residents. [caption id=“attachment_13232212” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Destroyed cars are seen at the rave party site near the Kibbutz Re’im, close to the Gaza Strip border fence. AP[/caption] A video shows militants removing three bodies from a car before snatching it and continuing north. Another video, verified by CNN, shows armed militants kidnapping five Israeli people, with the remains of four of them afterwards seen lying on the ground. The IDF confirmed on Monday that Be’eri had been “very badly hit.” Residents at Urim, a kibbutz 10 miles south of Be’eri, awoke Saturday at 6.30 am to the sound of sirens and raced to above-ground bomb shelters. Residents in Urim heard gunshots nearby on Sunday. “Shortly after 1.30 in the afternoon, we heard gunshots coming from inside the kibbutz. We all dropped everything. We ran as fast as we could to the shelters. We locked the doors, and we were barricading ourselves inside. People had knives and random things to use as weapons,” Wayne Lucas, a Virginia native who serves as a “lone soldier” in the IDF and lives in Urim told CNN. Another soldier from Urim stated he heard gunshots but couldn’t get to the shelter in time. **Also Read: 'Worst nightmare': How Israeli border guards were caught unaware during Hamas attack** I didn’t know what I needed to do first: hide, lock my door, find a weapon, run to the nearest shelter?” the soldier, who asked not to be named, told CNN. “There was nowhere good to hide, and I ended up hiding in my closet.” When the soldier and Lucas were given the all-clear, an Israeli army unit was outside, having caught three militants who had attempted to storm the kibbutz. With inputs from Reuters