The Kfar Azza Massacre: The Extent of Hamas’ Crimes Becoming Clearer What You Need to Know About the Israeli Offensive in the Gaza Strip

Days after the attack by Hamas terrorists, new atrocities continue to emerge. The events surrounding the music festival in the Israeli desert, in which more than 250 people died, became known quite quickly. A few days later it became increasingly clear what the Hamas terrorists had done in several towns and villages near the border with the Gaza Strip.

The slow response of Israeli forces on Saturday gave Hamas terrorists many hours to invade more than two dozen towns outside the Gaza Strip, where they killed at least 1,200 people and took an estimated 150 hostages, the New York Times reports.

Some of the largest massacres took place on the kibbutz or community settlement of Kfar Azza, in southern Israel. A reporter from the “NYT” was one of the first media representatives on the scene. Although not all the bodies had been cleared, she described the scene at Kfar Azza, where about 750 Israelis had previously lived.

“At least a dozen bodies lay scattered on the paths and lawns, attracting flies, some of them Hamas fighters, others Israelis, loosely covered with blankets. The smell of death hung in the air,” writes Isabel Kershner. Some residents were still missing and survivors were housed in nearby hotels.

In Kfar Azza, Hamas was murdered with a brutality that is difficult to imagine. Entire families were shot dead in their homes: adults, children, babies. Some houses were burned down, others were apparently looted by the terrorists.

Kershner also reports on individual fates: there is the Kedem Siman Tov family – parents and three small children who were all murdered. “And then there’s Itai and Hadar Berdichevsky, who hid their 10-month-old twins before they were shot.” The twins were rescued 13 hours later.

Decapitated babies and booby traps

A television report by a reporter from the international television channel i24 News also caused shock and disbelief. She reported on the events when Kfar Azza was wearing a helmet and protective vest, and an excerpt from her report caused a stir on social media.

She tells how Israeli soldiers reported dead babies whose heads had been cut off. Children’s beds fell over and people were shot dead in their beds. In the background you see soldiers comforting each other. No one could have prepared for this in the slightest, the reporter said. Some houses are still equipped with booby traps and hand grenades that must first be disarmed.

Most of the bodies had already been removed by the time the first reporters arrived on the scene. Nevertheless, media representatives continued to see dead people on the ground – both victims of Hamas terrorists and dead Hamas fighters themselves. Many of them are severely bloated and deformed. At the same time, many body bags continued to be transported to a truck and eventually to a site in front of the Kfar Azza Synagogue. There, the body bags would have name tags – even very small ones, some with the sign: “Baby.”

Apparently the fighting in the kibbutz between the Israeli army and the Hamas terrorists continued until Tuesday morning. Only then did the scale of the attack become clear.

“They let us down”

Kibbutz Kfar Azza is located just two kilometers from the border fence. The communal village was founded in 1951, three years after the establishment of the State of Israel. The first settlers were long considered the country’s progressive, down-to-earth socialist elite. Like the residents of most other kibbutz communities, the residents are more left-liberal, writes the New York Times.

An anti-government banner hung in the kibbutz in Kfar Azza, the “NYT” reporter reports. It bore the inscription: “Shame!” After the massacres, residents wondered why no help arrived for so many hours. “I really don’t know where our state was,” said one resident angrily. Then she added, “You failed us. They were on Twitter, that’s where they were.”

Israeli officials have not yet commented on why the response to the attacks was so late.