Israel’s army has said civilians including families, women, and children were massacred by Hamas fighters at a kibbutz on Saturday, one of many harrowing scenes emerging as border areas are reclaimed from gunmen.
International journalists from outlets including the BBC and the New York Times were on Tuesday taken around Kfar Aza, just a few miles away from the border fence where Hamas gunmen broke through from Gaza, launching multiple attacks against kibbutzim – a type of collective farm –, villages, and a music festival where 260 bodies were recovered, as well as military targets.
Videos by VICE
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said fighting in the area around Kfar Aza was ongoing until Tuesday morning. Troops were only now able to recover the bodies of civilians from homes that they said had been booby-trapped after Hamas fighters had gone house-to-house shooting civilians.
Major General Itai Veruv, who was officially retired until this week, described what took place in the kibbutz as a “massacre.”
“It’s not a war, it’s not a battlefield, it’s a massacre,” he said. “It’s something that I never saw in my life.”
In a separate video update posted online, IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus likened the situation at Kfar Aza to “something out of a scene of an apocalyptic movie, or something related to zombies.”
Bodies of Hamas fighters lay strewn across the ground, surrounded by bullet-ridden cars, motorbikes, and even one of the paragliders that Hamas used to breach the Israeli border fence. More than 1,500 Hamas militants have been found dead since the attack began, Israel said.
Some Israeli soldiers told journalists at the scene, including from the BBC, Reuters, and the Independent, that some of those killed had their throats slits or heads cut off. VICE News was not among the journalists present in Kfar Aza and cannot verify the claims. Journalists who were present have said they could not verify the claims because the bodies of those killed by Hamas were already covered or sealed in body bags.
It’s not yet known how many people died in Kfar Aza or how many of the people who lived here are among the 100-plus hostages thought to have been taken back to Gaza.
Israel says more than 1,200 people have been killed since Hamas attacked on Saturday, while officials in Gaza said more than 1,000 people had been killed by Israeli air strikes launched in response after Israel formally declared war on Hamas.
Under international humanitarian law, attacks on civilians are prohibited. The United Nations has warned that Israel’s “complete siege” of Gaza, where supplies of food, water, fuel and electricity are being shut off, is also prohibited under international law.
The United Nations has said that there are more than 260,000 people currently displaced in Gaza. The thin coastal strip is home to 2.3 million people and is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. It has been governed by Hamas, designated as a terrorist group by the US, UK and European Union, since 2007.
The White House has said it is working with Israel and Egypt about securing safe passage for civilians in Gaza, but did not give details.
