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I've never seen anything like it in my life." Four days after the start of Hamas' terror attacks in Israel, IDF soldiers and international journalists learned about the horror that struck the two kibbutzim of Kfar Aza and Beeri, located in the Jewish state, just a few kilometers from the Gaza Strip border in the early hours of Saturday morning. Both localities were taken over by the Islamist group, which left only bodies behind.
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As Reuters reports, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Tuesday allowed foreign media to enter Kibbutz Kfar Aza, which has regained control of it in recent days. "I've never seen anything like this in my life.You see the babies, the mothers, the fathers, in their rooms, in their bunkers, and how the terrorists killed them," Israeli Major Itai Virov told the news agency. It's not a war, it's not a battlefield. It's a massacre, it's terrorist activity. I've never seen anything like this in my life," he added.
"There is a smell of death"
This was confirmed by international journalists, including Maël Benoliel of i24 News. "It is going to be extremely difficult for me to describe to you the horror that we have seen (...) There is talk of dozens of houses burned with entire families killed inside, of women and children whose heads have been cut off. We're talking about dozens of deaths here alone. There is a smell of death here (...) It's the apocalypse," he said, shocked. Israeli soldiers were busy removing the bodies of Hamas victims and terrorists from the kibbutz on Tuesday.
Israel's social media reported that a total of 40 babies were murdered there by Hamas fighters, some of them beheaded. According to the IDF, 70 Hamas operatives had invaded Kfar Aza.
An aerial view of Kibbutz Kfar Aza. ILAN ROSENBERG/REUTERS
One hundred dead in Beeri
A short distance away, the same scenes of horror could be seen in Kibbutz Beeri. "More than 100 people" were killed, according to the NGO Zaka, which helped collect the bodies. "They were shooting at everyone," "they murdered children, babies, elderly people, everyone, in cold blood," said Moti Bukjin, the NGO's spokesman.
At dawn on Saturday, after crossing the border fence that Israel considered impregnable, hundreds of Hamas fighters rushed into Jewish communities in the south of the country, going from house to house, shooting dead citizens or abducting them to bring them back to the Gaza Strip. Since then, Israel has been shelling the Gaza Strip. The country's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced late Monday that a "massive attack" was being prepared in retaliation.