Even the eye of an experienced reporter, who saw the horrors of ISIS in Iraq and the massacres of the Russian army in Ukraine, was not familiar with the horrific scenes unfolded on the road leading to Kibbutz Reim. Huge army forces moved along the roads, against the background of reports of renewed shooting and fighting at Kibbutz Magen.
The second day of the attack in the envelope: the extent of the horror in the street is exposed // Shmuel Buchris
The narrow road, flanked by eucalyptus trees, is strewn to the horizon with broken, burned and lying at distorted angles. We pass by a police armored vehicle that collided with a terrorists' van, the heavy machine gun still attached to the truck with a startlingly large amount of RPG launchers inside. The contents of the vehicles reveal much about the identity of those who drove them, a little more than a day ago.
Mats, roasters, coolers and bottles of alcohol stand bloody heaps on the side of the road, small memorials to young people full of joie de vivre who just went out to celebrate and were caught up in the cruelest and worst massacre in Israel's history.
Testimonies of murderers are also scattered all along the way, and during the ride we counted dozens of bodies of terrorists, some of whom were still holding the steering wheel of the motorcycles they were riding on. The party site itself remained the same, even the lighting grills still work, at first glance one could imagine that the party was still going on. But the place is empty, ruined, and the smell of death hangs in the air. The only ones present are members of the security forces who rush on the roads and those who search for the victims.
IDF soldiers in Sderot, photo: AP
Israeli security forces near a vehicle seized at Emunim Junction, photo: Yossi Zeliger
Israeli security forces near Ashkelon, photo: AFP
IDF forces in the Gaza Strip, photo: AFP
On the road near the entrance to Kibbutz Reim, we meet a couple of parents who are looking for their son, who went missing during the party. The father refuses to give his name because of his work in the security services, but says that the last place they saw their son was right at the entrance to the kibbutz.
Next to them stands a large group of Bedouin men dressed in black. "We came here to retrieve the body of a village resident, who was lying in his van. We're all his friends here. He was murdered by the terrorists while trying to rescue casualties. He was a bus driver and was supposed to drive revelers back to the center," says Talal, one of the men we met.
Also arriving on the scene is the chairman of the Kseifa proposal, Abdelaziz Nasasra. "The Bedouin sector has been hit very hard by the violent incidents. We lost women and children in the missile attack and we still don't have any means of protection, the feeling is very difficult," Nasasra said.
In the kibbutz, too, signs of destruction are everywhere. The terrorists entered Kibbutz Re'im and fired everything they could find. A small shelter at the entrance to the settlement has become the scene of a massacre and the sight is unimaginable. "It's a death trap," says Niv, a kibbutz member near the gate. We arrive just as the evacuation from the kibbutz begins. Nina and Alex Kamraz, kibbutz residents and parents of a friend who was drafted into the reserves, leave the only home they have known since immigrating to Israel in the 90s, without knowing when they will return. Yesterday, their 13-year-old grandson was lightly wounded by terrorist fire while traveling with his father to a school in the morning. Now the whole family plans to meet.
"We will overcome"
At first glance, Sderot looks like it's a Saturday morning and the residents are still asleep. Here and there we see an older man returning from synagogue or a young woman taking the dog for a walk at the beginning of the day.
Only gradually do the dimensions of the event that took place in it surface. The first thing that stands out is the lack of electricity and traffic lights. Although Sunday, no businesses have opened in the city, including those essential for local residents. Cars and police cars lie perforated at intersections around the city and bullet casings occasionally roll on the road.
Inside the police station compound, where the terrorists who raided the city barricaded yesterday, the destruction is unimaginable and reminiscent of sights I saw in places like Mosul and Kherson. The terrorists' vans were evacuated by Shuffle, and destroyed patrol cars adorn the station's small parking lot. Bullets and bodies of terrorists are still strewn on the ground. "We are destroying the building step by step, because the terrorists booby-trapped it all," explains a sympathetic policeman who asks us not to approach the building while an IDF bulldozer tears down another wall.
But despite the horror that has taken place, a small number of the city's residents are trying to return to normalcy. Saturn, a local elderly man, arrives on his scooter and asks if the siege at the police station is over. "I was tired of hiding in the safe room, I went out to see what was going on," he says boldly. We stand in front of the city's destroyed police station, alongside foreign journalists, where the police blocked access to the building, which is still billowing smoke. A man wearing a kippah arrives in a vehicle and addresses reporters with a smile. "Does anyone have a cigarette?" asks Moshe Rafael, a resident of the city.
"I haven't smoked since the holiday began. Everything is closed and I can't find cigarettes. We've had such a hard day that the only thing I can think about is lighting a cigarette and smoking. We hid in the house, pressed to the floor, and prayed for the whole family. No one was hurt, thank God, but what this city went through is just a disaster," says the man whose face lights up when a reporter starts rolling a cigarette for him.
"We'll get out of this, the city will recover, they can't break us," he says as he lights his cigarette and breathes the smoke into his lungs. Other residents are also trying to get back to a tiny bit of routine. A shopkeeper cleans the glass fragments from the building, and across the street a woman cleans fragments from her doorway. It is hard to guess when some kind of normalcy will return to the Gaza envelope, but it seems that many of its residents are determined to continue fighting for their homes.
Wrong? We'll fix it! If you find a mistake in the article, please share with us