The Barbarity of Hamas

The following is excerpts from “Israelis Describe Hellish Scenes in Communities Attacked by Hamas Terrorists” by Bill Pan, published in The Epoch Times on October 13, 2023.

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The atrocities were too much to handle, even for someone with decades of experience in recovering bodies.

Content warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of extreme violence that may be distressing to some readers.

An Israeli emergency responder with two decades of experience in recovering bodies said he found it difficult to deal with what he witnessed in communities ravaged by the onslaught of Hamas terrorists, a picture that could only be described as hellish.

“Do you want me to tell you about the hardest sights? Bodies of babies tied up,” Mendy Haviv, a commander of non-governmental rescue and recovery organization ZAKA, told Epoch Israel.

Mr. Haviv and his ZAKA volunteers entered Be’eri, a kibbutz near Israel’s border with Hamas-controlled Gaza. Home to more than 1,000 people before Hamas unleashed attacks that Israeli officials characterized as the “worst since the Holocaust,” Be’eri is now a place marked by horror and inhumanity.

“At the end of the kibbutz, in a house that was completely destroyed, they [the babies] are sitting on a fence outside of the house,” Mr. Haviv recalled. “Their bodies are burned. Their parents, sitting in front of them, are slaughtered.“

He moved on to describe even more harrowing scenes: a pregnant woman with her stomach cut open and a woman burned in a wheelchair.

“Burnt bodies, burnt houses everywhere. Decapitated heads of children of several ages,” he added. “The smell of rotting corpses [is so bad] that you can’t even breathe. This is the horror we are dealing with.”

In kibbutz Kfar Gaza, a little more than five miles north of Be’eri, Mr. Haviv said the volunteers encountered booby traps placed under the victims’ bodies.

“The bodies are still there, with the explosive charge, at least until yesterday,” he told Epoch Israel. “The whole activity there for those 24 hours just makes you cry.“

The search and recovery commander said he was not allowed to take photos of the victims. But for the purpose of identification, he only took pictures of unique marks like tattoos and earrings.

“I don’t photograph horrors. I don’t photograph decapitated heads. Definitely not. Because the Jewish religion forbids me to do this,” he said. “But for the purpose of identification, I take pictures of what needs to be taken: tattoos, earrings, all kinds of signs, so that the family will know that the person was found [dead] and was not kidnapped.”

Retired Lt. Col. Yaron Buskila, an Israeli Defense Force (IDF) veteran-turned-military commentator and contributor to Epoch Israel, said he talked to a rabbi who went into the kibbutzim with IDF troops to give the victims proper Jewish burial. He now regrets having that conversation.

“I regret that I even met the rabbi,” said Mr. Buskila, who has seen combat during his service. “His descriptions of things he saw were so shocking to hear that I just threw up.”

In addition to children and adults being decapitated, according to Mr. Buskila, the rabbi saw “babies that were hanged in a row” with their mothers’ bras.

“Even in the [horror] film, it is difficult to see such sights,” he said.

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CLICK https://twitter.com/IsraelWarRoom/status/1712422448535146930 [:06] to see God deliver some instant karma on a guy who presumed to burn the flag of Israel. H/t Mindful Webworker.

• https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/israelis-describe-hellish-scenes-in-communities-attacked-by-hamas-terrorists-5509150