In the kibbutz of horror: the terrible fate of the inhabitants of Kfar Aza

But instead of kites, military drones are now flying into the sky above Kfar Aza. Every minute Israeli artillery shells thunder over the kibbutz. Fighter jets make terrifying circles above us. The once peaceful village of 700 inhabitants looks as if a terrorist tornado has ripped through the streets. Faded cars, burnt-out houses, broken traffic signs. There is a burning smell in the air – and a terrible noise.

Aviv Kutz no longer notices the brutal war that devastated his homeland. The Hamas terror gangs, who swept across the stony field and broke through the security fence on the morning of October 7, murdered him and his entire family in their home on the edge of the small kibbutz. Aviv was found with his arms stretched out on top of his wife and children. He was probably trying to protect her. A final act of courage from the man who once returned from Boston, America, to his hot and hotly contested homeland to bring a little peace.

The Islamist fighters in Kfar Aza killed 62 people that terrible morning, almost one in ten residents. They took 17 hostages. They spared no one.

Elite Officer Confirms Horrible Baby Rumor

“Not even the little children,” said Golan Vach, 49, head of an elite Israeli unit that has moved into the destroyed kibbutz. The rumor is true, says the little man, folding his enormous hands as if in prayer. “I carried a decapitated baby out of one of the houses with my own hands.” He has never seen anything more terrible than here in the attacked kibbutzim along the Gaza Strip.

A gray kitten prowls the destruction-lined street near where Vach stands and shows me photos of raped women’s bodies in his folder. At the next artillery shot, the kitten shrinks and disappears into a charred house. I follow him and can’t find him anymore. Instead, a torn mattress between black walls and an unflushed toilet in the bathroom. Whoever lived here: their lives were taken in the most base way possible.

Hamas terrorists killed 1,400 people three weeks ago during their attack on Israeli kibbutzim in southern Israel. Since then, 7,700 Palestinians, including more than 3,000 children, have been killed in Israeli retaliatory attacks on the Gaza Strip, Hamas’ health ministry says. At least 229 people, including several children, are still being held hostage in Gaza.

Cancer and war crimes

Hamas is like a rampant cancer that has infected Gaza, says Golan Vach. “You can’t fight it without harming your body. But if you want to get healthy in the long term, you have to stick with it.” Civilian casualties are inevitable. Israel follows the rules, even in war.

Organizations such as Amnesty International see it differently. Israel is committing war crimes through its continued attacks on the densely populated Gaza Strip, they say. Protests against Israel are increasing worldwide. Recently, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on all his compatriots to take to the streets for the Palestinians.

Golan Vach has no time for such geopolitical debates. “My job is to save people’s lives.” In Kfar Aza he was late for once.

The victims were friends of Palestine

It is paradoxical, says the Israeli elite officer: “Most of the people here were what we in Israel would call left-wing.” Pro-Palestinian, against the hard course of the Israeli government, full of empathy for the people in the cordoned-off coastal zone on the other side of the rocky field.

Ofir Libstein, the local mayor, for example. “He always dreamed of a shared industrial zone with workers from Gaza and the kibbutzim,” says Vach. The terrorists also killed Libstein. And with it the dream of joint work between Israelis and Palestinians here in the arid land.

Many in Israel are hopeful that the catastrophe of October 7 will soon be followed by the realization that a new start is needed, an end to all suffering and a fresh vision. But the bloody wounds opened by terror are difficult to heal. Colored dragons are not enough for this.